New mobo/cpu without reformatting.

[Vigilante]

How hard would this be to do? My friend did it. When he booted his pc with the new mobo/proc he went into safe mode and uninsatlled all previous drivers. How hard would this be to do? Would i have to reinstall video/wireless lan drivers?

 

[[Matt]]

If you dont know what you're doing its better to reformat as it can be a tricky proccess

 

[Vigilante]

How can it be tricky? All i need to do is uninstall all my old drivers..sound, chipset etc...
Also, whats the proper way to apply thermal comound on an Athlon 64?

 

[DJ_Cheeba]

I do this at my shop when people do not want to pay for a reload of there OS, this was in 98SE however. I would delete my "enum" in the registry and simply reboot after the new mobo and such were in there. This was actually the only way to do this the "right" way if you were upgrading from an older CPU like a p2/k62 to a Athlon XP or P4. To actually take advantage of the new instuctions on those cpus. Otherwise the OS would not utilize them to the fullest potential. However on XP what I might suggest for the future would be to make a seperate partition for your os, like a 10gig partition and install the OS and stuff like MS Office and Virus software etc. which have to be installed on the boot partition, then install all your other apps and data onto another partition. Then if you run into this again, you can just reformat the boot partition and reinstall on it! Hope that helps bud

 

[Vigilante]

I do this at my shop when people do not want to pay for a reload of there OS, this was in 98SE however. I would delete my "enum" in the registry and simply reboot after the new mobo and such were in there. This was actually the only way to do this the "right" way if you were upgrading from an older CPU like a p2/k62 to a Athlon XP or P4. To actually take advantage of the new instuctions on those cpus. Otherwise the OS would not utilize them to the fullest potential. However on XP what I might suggest for the future would be to make a seperate partition for your os, like a 10gig partition and install the OS and stuff like MS Office and Virus software etc. which have to be installed on the boot partition, then install all your other apps and data onto another partition. Then if you run into this again, you can just reformat the boot partition and reinstall on it! Hope that helps bud

Thanks, but whats "Enum" mean? I'm giong from an Athlon XP 2600+ to an Athlon 64 3000+

 

[Maxi]

It's recommended by everyone that you reinstall your OS when you change your mobo and CPU. Since alot of the drivers aren't totally removed, and the only way to remove them totally is to go into the registry and delete the right keys. But it's MUCH more easier to just reformat. Besides, it only takes about 2h to reinstall windows and install all the drivers again.

 

[Vigilante]

Okay..i guess i'll format. Whats the proper way to put on thermal compound?

 

[Maxi]

I find it easiest to apply it with a latex glove. You want the layer of thermal compound to be as thin as possible. Since you have an a64 you wan't to apply paste on the entire top part of the heatspreader (the metal bit). Apply a layer that's just thick enought so that you can't see through it if you're using silver paste.
And from experience, all of the Arctic Silver compounds are good, i'd suggest going with Arctic Silver 5, since it's the newest one.

 

[Vigilante]

Arctic Silver Ceramique Premium High Density Thermal Compound is what i ordered. Thanks for the help.

 

[Maxi]

Arctic Silver Ceramique Premium High Density Thermal Compound is what i ordered. Thanks for the help.

NP, You can also apply the thermal compound with a piece of plastic, ie old credit card or something. But I find that the glove works the best (I put it on and use my index finger).

 

[deep8832]

what's thermal paste?

 

[DJ_Cheeba]

Put about the equiilent of a grain of rice, and spread that out evenly. Depending on the brand/type used you might want to add a little more. :thumbs:

 

[Vigilante]

Since the athlon 64 is flat with no core stick up like the Athlon XP, do i spread the compound all over the top of the processor?

 

[Maxi]

Yes, but not on the sides, only the top.