[ascension15]

Is it realistic to change the motherboard of your PC without having to change everything else? In other words, can I take out this socket 754 motherboard and put in [whatever the latest socket motherboard is] as long as all the other hardware is compatible with it? As in, I have a sound card on a PCI port and a video card on a PCI-Express port, so as long as those ports are on the new motherboard--along with what other compatible connectors there might need to be for all the other wiring and stuff--there should be no issue? Especially with the hard-drive: it can plug back into a new motherboard and all my programs and files and stuff will be just as I left them?

I'd like to put a better motherboard in, but I don't want to have to completely overhaul all the other devices and system files and crud.

The only reason I'd want to do it is to get a better processor. With this socket 754 motherboard, a preliminary search seems to tell me the best I can get for that is maybe a 2.4 Ghz Athlon (currently, a 1.8 Ghz Sempron is what I have). But damn, a couple of trips to local software stores reveals that a bunch of newer programs are already asking for friggin' 2.8+ Ghz! I know a shiny new 3.0 Ghz CPU is not going to be cheap, but it'll cost less than buying a whole new system and save the headache of having to reinstall and transfer all my stuff all over again. Ugh.

 

[norton850]

You'll want new RAM also. It looks like from the information given the rest should work. You won't be able to just stick the HD back in without doing at least a repair install of XP or some other arrangement.

 

[Jedi_Master]

Especially with the hard-drive: it can plug back into a new motherboard and all my programs and files and stuff will be just as I left them?

As stated above...

Not exactly, the OS ( whatever you are using ) will...well...die on you because of the different chipsets involved...

You might get by with a repair install, ( if XP you will have to re-activate, and explain to M$ what you are doing ) then again you might not. In my experience the repair installs sometimes don't go as planned, so you might want to back up your data ( data files not programs, you can't back up programs reliably ) and prepare to reformat/reinstall all programs...

 

[Old Rich]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103605

And you can use your heatsink/fan with it and not have to change anything else on the board

 

[crjdriver]

To answer your question, yes you can swap boards without a clean install. There is a procedure to follow to do this and it starts with the old board still installed.

A clean install is the better way to go however if you do not want to clean install, it can be done.

I believe the skt754 was available with up to a 3700+ If your board supports that cpu, you could just install the cpu and be done with it for a while.