Upgrading from Tbird to XP..do I have to reinstall OS?

[moocat]

I know this question has been asked and answered before so I apologize if I missed this in an FAQ post or something. I plan on a upgrading my Tbird 1.4ghz to an an XP cpu (not sure what speed yet). Do I have to reinstall my OS(es) to take full advantage of the new processor? I currently am dual booting Win98 and XP Pro.

I've got tons of apps, tweaks, games (with 3rd party addons), etc...I really would rather avoid the very long process of getting my systems back to the point they are now.

 

[Cerb]

Try not reinstalling and see what happens. Chances are pretty good you'll just have to mess w/ the BIOS a bit and then it will all be just fine (but make sure you have an XP-supporting chipset and BIOS before you put the new chip in).

 

[EKAtBzboyz]

i think in order for it to take advantage of the sse instructino set, a reinstall may be necessary...not sure however

try it out

 

[deerslayer]

It's not necessary to run, but i'm not sure about "full advantage". I went from a Tbird to an XP and it worked just fine for me.

I had a lot of stuff installed on my system too, and I didn't want to have to reinstall it all!

 

[BDawg]

I uprgraded my PIII to a P4 and didn't have to reinstall. All I had to do was put in the XP disk and choose install, then repair a windows installation.

Now, it works beautifully and quickly.

 

[moocat]

I believe there are some optimizations that occur during install depending on what cpu the installation routine detects. I didn't think of using the XP repair option.

I'm certain a new cpu will work...just not sure how much performance I'd be giving up without the optimizations. Guess I'll have to just try it and see what happens.

Thanks all for the input.

 

[grunjee]

If you want SSE, you DO need to reinstall Windows. Period.