[Aristai]

Hello tech support guy forums!

I recently decided to upgrade my motherboard to be able to support a quad core processor. The motherboard i have in mind is the ASUS M3A78-VM, and the processor is an AMD Phenom II x4.

I know that these two are compatible. However, I do not have much hardware experience at all, and I have no clue how to start checking whether or not all my other components are compatible. I would rather learn to do it myself than just post all my bits and have somebody tell me, but if it comes to it then i wouldn't mind that . Is there any kind of standard way of checking compatibility between parts?

This is my first major(ish) component upgrade, all i have done before is replace a firewire card and add more RAM. Any advice for a clueless hardware newbie would be appreciated. Also if anyone can see something wrong with either of the two selected parts that i may not have seen, or can reccomend better, that would be great too.

Thanks a lot!

[Compiler]

Read one of the stickys in this section labled: : Guide for building your own system

You'll need to reinstall Windows and your software. Make sure youre RAM is DDR2 800mhz (dont bother with 1066) and that its compatible with the board you chose.

Also VERY carefully read the manual to the motherboard. Don't drop parts or touch them on the shiney parts.

[Aristai]

Wouldn't my operating system and all my programs and files still be saved to the hard drive? Or do i also need a new one to match the motherboard?

[dustyjay]

WHen you change Motherboards you are also changing the Chipset and other major components of the system. Your present installation of windows will have the drivers set up for the old motherboard and will not work on the new motherboard. There may be a further complication. If the installation of windows you have is an OEM installation from a major manufacturer it is a violation of the EULA to use that copy of windows on anything except the factory hardware it was provided with. Trying to install such a copy of windows onto a different motherboard (which is defined as a new and different system) will fail as the drivers are custom set up for the original system. If you have a retail installation of Windows then youare free to use it as many times as you want so long as it is installed on only ONE system at a time. With a retail installation of windows you would still need to do a clean install of windows to work with the new motherboard. Which will of course mean that you would have to reinstall all of yor progams again. You can back-up and save any data files you want to save such as pictures, documants, music files, but program files will have to reinstalled so as to set correct Registry entries.

[Aristai]

Aha, i get it now. Thank you. So OS and software aside for now, a new motherboard would need to be compatible with the processor, RAM, and power supply... But not any graphic/sound/wireless/firewire cards? Do they generally fit any motherboard?

[crjdriver]

You need bios 904 to run that cpu. If you have an older amd am2 or am2+ sitting around, then no big deal. If not, then I would see if you can find out what bios is installed on the board.

FWIW I did a few upgrades when the new XIIs came out and the bios updates had not been released. In both cases, the board posted however it was an "unknown cpu" after the bios update was applied, it worked fine.

Note this is NO guarantee that your board will post with a bios that does not support the cpu.

[Compiler]

Hence, the recommendation for the $110 mobo since its BIOS is XII ready (Stupid AMD CPU name)... Those 770/780 chipsetboards will run a PX II CPU once their BIOS is upgraded, but that is if you're looking at the 3 or 4 core P X II CPUs.

The motherboards have onboard Audio and firewire. Wireless, no. $40~50 for a PCI card of your choice. Some have onboard graphics (740/780 chipset), some don't (770 / 790). All of those AMD boards support standard PCIe graphics cards.

To make things easier and if you're not gaming - get the $80~90 780G board (built in graphics) and go with a dual core CPU for now.

You can purchase WinXP for $100 (HOME) or $115 (MCE - modernized 2005 version of XP) from newegg as well.

[Aristai]

So how would i go about upgrading a BIOS to run a quad? Or does that differ from board to board, and would be in the manual for my future board?

[crjdriver]

Originally Posted by Aristai

So how would i go about upgrading a BIOS to run a quad? Or does that differ from board to board, and would be in the manual for my future board?

The very first thing to do is find out if you in fact need to update the bios. Asus boards very often ship with the bios ver# on a sticker attached to the bios chip. Next any bios update requires you read and fully understand the specific instructions from the board maker. This is because an incorrect or corrupted flash can render the board unbootable ie junk or at least in need of a new bios chip.