When Upgrading Motherboards...Follow

With FFXIV coming out soon, my 2 year old system could use some upgrades. Certainly don't need to scrap the whole thing, but my processor is really the lowest rung of the system ( 3.6 GHz Core 2 Duo).

Problem is, in order to upgrade to the i5 I'm looking at, I would need a new motherboard. So my question is, if I get a new motherboard and processor, can I just plug in my HDD that has Windows7 installed and have it work? Or will I need to do a clean install and reformat that HDD?

Thanks,

Stri

First, have you looked at benchmarks comparing your Core2Duo and the i5?

I mean, I'm looking at upgrading my E8500 in a couple months or so as well, but still...comparison between the later C2Ds and i5s is very application based. IE http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/54?vs=117

Obviously, dual core vs quad, in quad-core aware apps, will show a significant difference.

You'll likely have a chain of upgrades, yes. CPU means new mobo, and quite possibly new RAM as well.

Far as reinstalling Windows...there's a small chance it might boot and go through fits of detecting new hardware and telling you that your activation is no longer valid. More likely, it'll crash on startup. The better bet, and the better option in general, would be to just do a clean install. You don't necessarily need to wipe the drive - with the cost of storage, I'd consider just buying a new boot HDD anyway if you're upgrading.

Wow, that is a great site. I didn't realize that my processor was still up to par. Sounds like (based on that site) perhaps my graphics card is the only thing that will really need upgrading. Hopefully in the next couple months some prices will drop.

I think the best idea (for anyone looking to upgrade, really) is to wait and get the game, see how it runs, and decided if an upgrade is worth it.

Thanks for the advice!

read up on a technology called "sysprep" and then visit driverpacks.net. If you are willing to put the effort into it you can make an image from your exising computer that will run on any hardware. Depending on the chipset of your motherboard, you have a 70/30 chance it will boot to the point you can install the correct drivers without sysprep. Depends on if your Core 2 is on a Nvidia chipset board or an Intel chipset, which drive controller on your board you used, etc.

A 3.6 Ghz Core 2 is a higher end Core 2, a Core i5 is a midrange processor, you might want to look at the socket 1366 Core i7 chips.