I would like to upgrade my motherboard and CPU from a KT400 3000+ Athlon XP to a KT800 Pro to a 939 3500+ Athlon 64. I don't want to do a complete reinstall of Windows XP however because I have a lot of stuff and don't wan to spend a week reinstalling it. I just want to put in the motherboard, drop in the CPU, hook up my current HD and go. Would installing the chipset drivers for the new motherboard prior to the upgrade help? So, that when the new motherboard/CPU are installed, it will load the new drivers and start up ok.Thanks,RH

I upgraded from a NForce2 board with an AthlonXP 2400+ to a NForce3 board with the Athlon64 3500+ and was surprised that the system booted into the old XP installation and even ran FS2004 without problems. However, after reformatting and completely reinstalling XP and FS, performance was slightly better.Since you'll also be using a chipset from the same vendor as the old one, it might work. I think the drivers are unified so you just need to install the latest drivers and it will work with either mobo. You need to verify that. If that's not the case, uninstall the old drivers, switch motherboards, *then* install the new ones.Finally I don't think you'd notice a very big difference going from a 3000+ XP to a 3500+ A64. If you can, you may want to wait for the NForce4 and for Athlon64 4000+ or 3800+ prices to come down some.

Thanks for the information! It's interesting that you think I will not see much of a performance improvement (from an XP3000+ to an Athlon643500+. I was getting the impression from others that I would see a big improvement.I was actually thinking of moving to a K8T Neo2-F board and putting in a 3000+ A64 and then overclocking it to 3500+.Maybe then I need to wait like you suggest. How was your upgrade experience?RH

Well there will definitely be an improvement but it won't be like night and day like it would if you went from e.g. a 2400+ or so to 3500+.The 3000+ are very cheap at the moment and the Winchester cores should overclock to 3500+ speeds and beyond easily.

JimmiG wrote: >>If that's not the case, uninstall the old drivers, switch motherboards, *then* install the new ones.<>Well there will definitely be an improvement but it won't be like night and day like it would if you went from e.g. a 2400+ or so to 3500+.<< This is not too precise IMHO. Maybe Jimmi is overlooking something? IMHO, you'll likely see a quite dramatic performance increase, whether you come from a XP2400 or XP3000. Good luck and kind regards Jaap

Thanks Jaap!That's what I was kind of hoping for in terms of upgrading to an Athlon64. I guess I won't know about the performance improvements until I try it myself.RH