Heya guys, Im getting new hardware for my PC tomorrow including these parts: ASUS P5L 1394 Socket 775, Intel™ Pentium™ Dual Core E2160, nVidia GeForce 8500GT 256MB DDR2, Kingston 512MB DDR2 667 PC2-5300 240-pin PC (1) Thing is, this will be my first time putting together a pc, which im treating it as a project. However, I already have various hardware im keeping and i'm assuming that when i replace the motherboard, cpu, etc, my pc will essentially be reformatted. How do i find out the existing drivers in my pc? I guess i need to download them and make back ups onto a disc, ready for reinstallation. Thanks
Hi, If you are using XP then you will have have to reformat your drive after you change the motherboard/chipset, however if you are running Vista then you shouldn't have to - in theory! You will get drivers disks with your new parts but to make yourself safe you should try to have a copy of all your other drivers although this is not really vital as they can be installed later. XP loads up most drivers but after it installs you should install your new part-specific drivers as soon as possible. Have fun - it's not as bad as you think.
Lol, im using windows xp 'cos i dont trust vista yet. Im nervous about it all and obviously, tryingt o make sure i have all bases covered beforehand. Some people noted that i may have to upgrade my PSU as it is a very old pc (About 8 years old)
Those "some people" are probably quite smart. Getting a new PSU would definitely be recommended. A (working) 8 year old PSU is surely an antique!
Ok, a stupid question, but can i just buy any pcu (from amazon or something) or is there various shapes and sizes of pcus?
Generally yes but there are better, more specific ones available. Try this link (one of many guides): http://www.hardware.info/en-US/articles/am5nZmpxZA/Power_supply_buyers_guide/ I would recommend looking at a few suppliers who specialize in PSU's rather than Amazon. Google should be able to help you now!