A few Vista question

[Saicho]

Hi all,

I'm planning on installing 64bit Vista on the new rig I just built.

I bought a GA-EP35-DS4 mobo that was defective on arrival that I will be sending back tomorrow to Newegg with an RMA #.

I have a GA-EP35-DS3R replacement mobo at the moment that I will be returning to the retailer since I will be getting a working DS4.

My question is, can I install Vista on the DS3R and then switch to the DS4 when it arrives without any problems? Will I have to reinstall the OS when I switch the mobo? If I have to reinstall, with there be any problems if I've activated my Vista already?

Thanks!

 

[QuixoticOne]

They're both P35 chipset motherboards, right?
So what is really different about them? Maybe a different sound chip?
Slightly more SATA ports?
Maybe a 3rd party SATA raid controller or 2nd ethernet chip?

Really for all the stuff that MAINLY matters (unless you're running some kind of maxed out SATA RAID system and the motherboards have different RAID implementations/hardware) they're identical motherboards.

Just install VISTA on the one you have if you want to use it for a few weeks until you can switch the motherboards.

I'd install but NOT activate it just to save the hassle of potential reactivation later; you can run for well over 30 days unactivated (slmgr -rearm from an administrator command prompt to add the 2nd 30 days once you're on day 29 of the first period).

If you're worried about VIsta changing drivers or whatever then just find out what chips are different between the two motherboards and see if you can get by without installing drivers for whatever they don't have in common, e.g. sound, LAN, RAID, whatever that may be.

I really wouldn't worry about switching motherboards as long as you don't have RAID it should all work fine.

Just try to plug your hard drives into the same logical primary / secondary / master / slave ports they were on before for maximum compatibility, and set the BIOS BOOT drive options correspondingly.

Originally posted by: Saicho
Hi all,

I'm planning on installing 64bit Vista on the new rig I just built.

I bought a GA-EP35-DS4 mobo that was defective on arrival that I will be sending back tomorrow to Newegg with an RMA #.

I have a GA-EP35-DS3R replacement mobo at the moment that I will be returning to the retailer since I will be getting a working DS4.

My question is, can I install Vista on the DS3R and then switch to the DS4 when it arrives without any problems? Will I have to reinstall the OS when I switch the mobo? If I have to reinstall, with there be any problems if I've activated my Vista already?

Thanks!

 

[Saicho]

Yes, they are both P35 chipsets, the DS4 has 1 more PCI-E slot and firewire support.

I won't be using RAID for this so I'm not worried about that.

I think I will install the Vista for the time being.

What was the hassle of reactivation that you were talking about?

 

[QuixoticOne]

Yeah sounds like a good idea to install it if you can get use out of it immediately.

Activation hassle? Oh I just meant that as long as the drivers and partitioning / booting of the hard discs works out without problem when you switch motherboards (and it seems like that will all be fine), the only other potential hassle is that Vista will see that the motherboard has changed and will want to be reactivated.

In theory you shouldn't have a problem reactivating, though sometimes it may fail to work online and then you'd be stuck waiting on hold on the phone to get it done which is a bit of a hassle / inconvenience.

So I just meant that if you have no REASON to want to activate the temporary motherboard (like to download some WGA controlled stuff) then it can only save you potential time / effort to not activate it for 30-60-90 days or whatever.

No big deal either way. Good luck with your install.

Originally posted by: Saicho
Yes, they are both P35 chipsets, the DS4 has 1 more PCI-E slot and firewire support.

I won't be using RAID for this so I'm not worried about that.

I think I will install the Vista for the time being.

What was the hassle of reactivation that you were talking about?

 

[Saicho]

Thanks very much!!