Need a link please read in to do with changing mobo/cpu

[Santai]

Hey,


I have recently purchased online a motherboard and CPU and I am wondering if anyone had a link where I could find some good instructions on how to change my current motherboard and CPU. Also some do's and donts, tools I will need, and the different parts of the motherboard, where I plug stuff in e.t.c.


Your assistance is greatly appreciated.

 

[tjaisv]

PC Building Tutorial

 

[Santai]

Hey,


Thanks for the guide. I have one more question, does anyone know because I am keeping my old HD, will there be any complications with Windows XP pro when I try to boot it up after installing my new mobo/cpu?

 

[tjaisv]

Which mobo did you have before? It's usually best if you do a fresh OS install whenever you change mobos, particularly when the old mobo had its own drivers. But that's just my opinion.

 

[Santai]

I had a GA-BX2000 (Gigabyte) with a p3 550mhz


and am upgrading to

ECS K7S5A PRO ATX SIS735 SOCKETA DDR/SDRAM AGP 5PCI ATA100 USB2.0 SOUND LAN with

AMD ATHLON XP 1800+ THOROUGHBRED 1.5GHZ


Edit : Oh yeah, I currently have a 250 W power supply. I heard this can cause problems, is it really that bad? I'm not doing any overclocking or anything.

 

[redbeard1]

Here is a motherboard and XP issues link

Anandtech FAQ

AMD chips can barely get by with a quality 250 watt power supply, but 300 to 350 watt is probably better for stability, whether or not your overclocking.

 

[Santai]

The reason I'm concerned is in the link of the second post, the guy said he went one day to find his power supply fried which was not enough.


In the PC I have

CDrom
CdRW
Geforce 4 video
stock hsf
umm floppy disk drive.
http://www.ncix.com/canada/productdetail.php?tab=2&sku=9159 (motherboard)


I have no plans to overclock right now, but in the future I will be although when I do I will be buying a few new things like fans/case/power supply.

Also, even if something happens, will my whole comp fry or only the power supply?


Thanks again for your help.

 

[Santai]

bump

 

[DaiShan]

The 250 watt is probably skimping it with what you have, I would suggest getting a quality 300 watt psu, maybe an antec or enermax. Now on to your last question, it is very unlikely that it will do any damage to either the PSU or the motherboard, damage is associated with a surge not a lack of power. Common warning signs that your PSU is inadequate are weak 3.3 and 5 v rails, and random reboots. Give it a shot with the PSU you have now, if you don't have random reboots or other stability issues, don't worry about the PSU.

 

[tjaisv]

Here are the typical power requirements of common PC components:

Athlon T-Bred CPU (40-90w)
P4 3GHz (80-90w)
Motherboard (20-30w)
128MB DDR RAM (30w)
512MB DDR333 RAM (40w)
GeForce 4Ti (30w)
Radeon 9700 (40-50w)
GeForce FX (40-50w)
Hard drive (5-15w)
Floppy drive (5w)
Optical drive, eg CD or DVD (15-20w)
Zip drive (10w)
SCSI hard drive (20-35w)
PCI card (5-7w)
System Fan (3w)
CPU Fan (3w)
USB Device (5w)
IEEE 1394 Firewire (8w)
Mouse (1w)
Keyboard (1w)

Above wattages are based on figures reported here:
THG, ezboard, PCWorld