Need some advice on upgrading my PC, and whether it can be done or not… My main question is regarding my operating system, which is an OEM copy Windows XP Pro 32 bit. I’ve heard that an OEM copy can only be installed once, whereas a non OEM copy as long as you uninstall it from one machine you can then install it on another, is this correct? If this is correct, what part of the computer is the license linked to? Is it the HDD, the motherboard etc?

Having just upgraded the processor, I would like to now upgrade a few other things over the next couple of months… My system is as follows…

Foxconn G31MX-K motherboard – I’d like to upgrade this to an ASUS, or perhaps Gigabyte, with either the P45 or X48 chipset, and probably ATX not mATX form.
Intel Q9400 Core2Quad processor – Just upgraded from a E5300 Pentium Dual Core that I’d overclocked by 20% (motherboard doesn’t seem to want to overclock the Q9400 though).
4GB PC2-6400 800MHz Ram (2x2GB sticks – I’d like the ability to run 4 sticks in future, I know 32bit XP can’t see even the full 4GB I’ve got now, but I’ve got plans for a dual boot with a 64bit OS (I need to keep XP Pro for some software I use)
Western Digital 500GB Green HDD, 5400rpm 8mb cache – I’d like to upgrade this to one of the 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3’s that ebuyer are selling for £40 right now, could I just clone my original drive to the new one ok? If so how?
Nvidia GeForce 9500GT GFX card, 1GB DDR2 RAM – I’d like to upgrade this in the future too, it’s ok at present, but very occassionally I play COD MW2 and it’s not good enough for decent gameplay at full 1920×1080 resolution… Was thinking a GeForce 9800GT.
PSU is some no-name 350W unit that came in the machine – Expecting to have to upgrade this pretty soon, it’s probably almost at it’s limit running the Q9400 and the 9500GT together as is to be fair! But what would you recommend?

I appreciate this is all way OT, but if anyone out there can give me a bit of advice, it would be gratefully appreciated. Main aim of this system will be that I can cut down 2 desktops that I currently have into 1, as currently I’m using this PC as is sat alongside a Dual 2.5GHz PowerMac. What I want to do is use the one machine, with 2 hard drives, on still running XP and the other booting up into OSX as a Hackintosh. So please help if you can!

Whenever I’ve changed the motherboard or CPU, Windows has “asked” me to make a phone call to get an authorisation number and that’s allowed me to carry on as normal, otherwise you may as well get Windows 7 right now while you’re upgrading. Depending on your graphics card budget try a Palit Geforce 460 GTX about £170 delivered on ebay. There’s no point in buying a 9800 over a 9500 you just won’t see the performance increase from the price you pay. You’ll also have more legs in it if you decide to play Black Ops or Medal of Honour.

You could use Norton ghost to clone the drive but why would you want to? Surely you can add it as a separate drive is it SATA or IDE? If it’s SATA a new Motherboard will have plenty of SATA expansion on it. You can also get SATA to IDE converters for a couple of quid but they don’t always work.

Power Supply Calculator Here

Windows is tied to the hardware. Each piece of hardware carries a “score” that Windows uses to register changes.

It allows minor changes as the score will always be low but change CPU, network card, sound card etc & it will cause the score to go above the threashold & require re-activation.

Not really a problem but may need a call (free) to Microsoft to re-activate. It’s usually an automated system too. Just remmeber to use the options for hardware failure & it’s on;y installed on one machine!!

I would be inclined to back up your pornimportant data then just connect the drive to the new motherboard & Windows should be OK. If not you can always do a repair install.

BTW, would I be right in saying the PC is a Zoostorm?

Also agree that a 9800 won’t get you anything noticable over a 9500.

As above.

The other thing I’d add to that is, MS seem to have had a policy change in the last few months regarding XP and they’re far arsier than they used to be. When I last rang for activation, they started cross-examining me about the media I’d used to do the install (on a several-year old PC that belonged to someone else). If you’re going to do a motherboard swap, it might be an idea to have the recovery disc for the PC to hand.

ASUS and Gigabyte both pass the Cougar “OCD About Motherboards” test, good choices.

Also agree that a 9800 won’t get you anything noticable over a 9500.

Yes it will, 9500 and below are low power cards which are beat by good 8xxx cards. A 9600 is a card which you could play games on and a 9800gt will be even better.

I think windows is tied to the motherboard and cpu, smaller things like cd drives or hard drives won’t make a difference to the activation.

The PSU will need to be upgraded too if you decide to get the 9800GT as it probably won’t boot up. A decent 400-500w PSU will do you fine but if you want to overclock then one with a bit more wattage will be better. Corsair, Enermax, Seasonic, Coolermaster, OCZ and BeQuiet. Enermax and Seasonic ones are more expensive because they’re much better quality but the others are still good to use too.

Cheers for all the input so far guys… Knew this would be a slippery slope, not had any reason to upgrade really, but thought I would to make it a bit more powerful, and all that has done is highlight other areas of the PC that need upgrading! Hey ho…

BenjiM, really don’t wanna spend £170 on a GFX card, or get one that’s gonna need a big Mofo of a PSU as it draws 170W continuously! Hence why I was thinking 9800GT, looking at the scores on PassMark, my 9500GT gets 357 and a 9800GT gets 916… You really don’t reckon I’ll notice much difference? They also come in low power consumption models now (the 9800GT) and is also 100% Hackintosh approved so I understand… Also, cooler and quieter the PC runs, the better (going to be doing some music production on it too).

As for cloning the HDD, well the idea behind that is just to have 1 drive for Windows. Don’t want multiple drives for Windows really. And my current 5400rpm drive with only 8mb of cache isn’t the quickest either. Do you really have to spend a load of money on something like Norton Ghost to clone a drive? Oh, and everything in the box is SATA by the way.

BTW, would I be right in saying the PC is a Zoostorm?

It’s an ebuyer own model, not branded as a Zoostorm, but I understand ebuyer and zoostorm go pretty much hand in hand, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they made it. I bought it as just a tower last year, very basic, no OS installed etc. Added a cheap GFX card (the 9500GT), installed a copy of 32 bit XP I had spare, and it’s been great! The motherboard even OC’ed the original processor by 20% without any issues, stock voltages, and was totally stable!

So if I connect a new motherboard, and the current HDD for the time being, then Windows throws up the need to re-activate, then what do I do? Just phone the number and hope? Am I screwed? Will I end up having to buy a new license? Oh, and how would I do a repair install? Just the same as doing the original install? I think whatever I do, I’m gonna back up all the data externally before hand anyway…

Thing is at the moment, even though I’m fine with Windows 7 (use it on my work laptop), I don’t want to run it on my own PC. I’ve got a couple of bits of old software that I only use occassionally, but they’re old enough to only just be supported by XP if you get me.

they started cross-examining me about the media I’d used to do the install

I’ve got the official XP Pro SP2 install disc still, so no worries there… I hope! It’s just it’s only got an OEM license… Didn’t think that would cause any issues in the future, silly me trying to save a few quid!

ASUS and Gigabyte both pass the Cougar “OCD About Motherboards” test, good choices.

How so? What do you look for? I’m only looking at either of these, cos I’ve been doing my homework on the OSX86 site seeing what runs OSX easily enough when making a Hackintosh, and Gigabyte seem to come up trumps, with a few of the higher end ASUS boards getting well rated too.

The PSU will need to be upgraded too if you decide to get the 9800GT as it probably won’t boot up. A decent 400-500w PSU will do you fine but if you want to overclock then one with a bit more wattage will be better. Corsair, Enermax, Seasonic, Coolermaster, OCZ and BeQuiet. Enermax and Seasonic ones are more expensive because they’re much better quality but the others are still good to use too.

Planning on doing this too… Will probably hold off on the GFX initially, maybe wait a month or 2 more, but the PSU will definitely be replaced with it.

I honestly don’t think the price between the 2 is worth such a small upgrade. I think overclockers UK do an “own brand 600w PSU for a decent price. Worth a look.

If you get Win 7 Pro you can use XP mode which allows you to run older programs if they don’t run in compatibility mode.

If you don’t want to spend the money for the GY460 get an ATI 5770 you can have it for 100£ and it is much better than a 9800GT. I am not so sure if it is hackintosh compatible but Apple is using ATI 4XXX and 5XXX so I doubt you’d have a problem. A good quality 450W PSU should be enough for the 5770 too.

If you get Win 7 Pro you can use XP mode which allows you to run older programs if they don’t run in compatibility mode.

Only with professional (£219) or ultimate (£229), not home premium (£149)

Cheers Vrapan, the 5770 looks like a better option, only a few quid more than the 9800 but scores 50% better… And it’s 100% Hackintosh compatible by the looks of things, certainly they use the 5770 chipset in new iMac’s and the card in new MacPro’s…

no probs mboy

So hang on, if you get a beefy GFX card is it going to chew tons of power when just displaying STW?

No power increases when it is used more

So hang on, if you get a beefy GFX card is it going to chew tons of power when just displaying STW?

on older cards yes it did, but nowadays the cards have their own “low power” modes where the speeds and voltages go low when no 3D intensive programs are running, just like cpu’s have been doing for ages.

If you get Win 7 Pro you can use XP mode which allows you to run older programs if they don’t run in compatibility mode.

Only with professional (£219) or ultimate (£229), not home premium (£149)
I believe Win 7 Pro is normally professional, so shouldn’t be a problem 🙄

Cheers Aracer 😆 . Besides, Pro is £189.99 from Microsoft.

Here

If you have a “student” in the house,this is definitely worth a look http://www.software4students.co.uk/Windows_7-software.aspx
Ian

Getting more tempted to get windows 7 now I’ve seen XP mode running on it (it’s a virtual machine, I’m used to VMWare on a Mac, it works well enough) and the Student prices look appealing…

Now how vigilant are they on the Student purchasing it? Sadly there’s no students in our house, but both my GF’s sisters are students, as is my Dad, my stepmum, and various other people I know… So could one of them buy it for me?

AFAIK,I bought 7pro for the house computers,on the basis that my kids,8 & 15,do their IT homework on them,which is fairly true LOL.
Ian

How so? What do you look for?

Sorry, I missed this.

Basically, the motherboard is the single most important component in your system, and the one no-one ever gives any consideration to. It’s the least likely to ever get upgraded, and will have a massive effect on your system’s stability and performance. A saturday night special might save you ten quid on a build but can be responsible for all manner of weird and wonderful inconsistencies.

These days, there’s a handful of manufacturers that I’d rely on as manufacturers of reliable, high quality boards. Gigabyte, ASUS, Abit, Chaintech, DFI. Anything else, I’d want to hit the tech forums and get some proper reviews on before making a purchase. Not that all other boards are bad per sé, so much as they’re possibly unknown quantities. There’s a few I wouldn’t allow in the house on principle, mind. (-: