SG Broadband Community

Just got my order from Newegg.com, they rock!

Here it is:

Iwill KK266 mobo
Enlight 7237 case w/300 watt PS
Tbird 850 w/cheapo Coolermaster HSF

from old system:

128mb ram
4x8x32x Plextor CD-RW
40X cd-rom
WD 45g HD
Quantum 6.8g HD

Putting it all together and transferring hardware from my old system looks pretty straightforward. The one question I have is: do I need to do a fresh Windows installation or can I just plug my HD into the new setup and go?

Replies and advice greatly appreciated!

You should be safe. I upgraded a friends old Pentium 2 to a Celeron 700 with a new mobo and Windows found the new MB drivers in the first boot up and it was smooth sailing after a restart. Just have your Windows disk and the mobo drivers disk handy.

Are you changing video cards or anything else? Or just the mobo and processor?

Yeah, sorry about that. I'm transferring my old Voodoo 3 2000 PCI over. That WOULD be kinda necessary since the KK266 doesn't have on board video.

well, with a new mobo install i would at least (before you go make the hardware changeover) go into your device manager and remove all the devices you can. not all devices (like hard disk controllers) can be removed, but it will force windows to update the configuration of your devices within windows. this reduces the chance of your .inf folder becoming full of potentially old files/drivers from old system devices on the old mobo. just remove as many devices as you can, and shut down the system (dont restart it. just power down, and start moving the hardware into the new system). its also a good idea to boot into safe mode the first time you power up your new system. its like a primer for windows, to soften the shock a little of all the changes going on at once.

a mobo upgrade is without question the most difficult and potentially problematic upgrade you can do (thats not to say you will run into problems, but there are a lot of sytem devices that will be changing with the new mobo).

all i can say is just be prepared for a fresh windows install. a freind of mine at work put a new mobo in his system without making any changes, and it was a complete disaster. by the time i got the box, the system would give errors (and not BSODs.... the black&white screens of death) upon bootup. it wouldn't even boot into safe mode (ouch!!). i have performed many many mobo upgrades and have not run into a crash of that capacity before, so its not like its a common result...... just letting you know there is a chance it can happen.

just be prepared is all..... good luck .

Do this before you change over.

If you've got 9x or ME try this.
Go into the registry editor. Make a backup copy, Call it regback, save it to the root of C. If there are any probs restore this backup or run scanreg /restore rom Windows/command.
Go to this key, H-Key-Local machine, Enum. Delete the following keys, ESDI, ISAPNP, FLOP, MF, PCI, SCSI. Shut down the pc and hook up all the new stuff. Next time it boots it shouldd initialize all the new components. Make sure you have your win disk and any Chipset controller files handy.

BTW, since ur a junior member when u get it all working and have played with it u are now FORCED to post a little review of the board plus ur opinion

well ya dont have to but i'd love ya for it

Thanks for the replies! I'm gonna start tonight, but the gf is coming over so I don't know if I'll be able to finish...the computer that is!

I'm really psyched about the mobo. All reviews I've read say it's rock solid stable and a great overclocker. I'll post my commentary when I'm done.