[ewilliams12]

My experience in PC building extends as far as putting new graphics cards in a computer I bought from the shop, and installing a replacement DVD drive. Ohh and plugging in some more RAM.

I am getting into building a PC and decided to feel my way through with my old computer that was pretty hot 4 years ago. (see my PC info, PSU and Case new at time of writing) Ultimate goal is a gaming rig.

Anyway, down to business. My next step is the motherboard swap. This means also a CPU swap with a good heat sink/fan. I have pretty much scouted out the parts I want.

However I have never put a different board into a PC before and I was wondering if there was anything I need to know. The physical part I am sure I can manage since I have moved the innards of the old PC into a new case so what goes where I am sure I can handle.

I am more wondering if there is anything I need to know to get it working again afterwards. The hard drives with the factory installed Windows XP won't be changed at this point, just the motherboard and CPU. Should it work right away with nothing to configure, or do I need to fiddle with settings I have most likely never heard of before?

(Here is the board and here is the CPU.)

Also, the current RAM I have is 2 GB of DDR 2700. The board supports DDR2 up to 6400. Will the old ram work for now until I get to replacing it with something new? (Also on the cards, but also more expensive hence my question)

Thanks in advance.

[Carbon]

750i is a poor chipset, but it's your call. XP will ask you to reactivate and you may have problems with drivers. If at all possible you should reformat and reinstall XP fresh.

The old RAM will not work, they are physically incompatible.