need upgrade advice-

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puckhead

New Member
i used to build computers a lot, but have been out of it probably for the past 10 years. the technology has changed a lot since then :). i have a desktop pc, 32 bit, running xp. i have a 500gb ide hard drive, an ide dvd burner, and a 3.5 floppy, which i guess will get ditched. right now it has a wireless pci card for connectivity. i also have an pci soundblaster . that has to stay.
i'd like to upgrade the system. for starters, do i get a motherboard with sata and ide controllers? upgrading windows, there are a lot of programs, some have cracks or were purchased legit and i worry i cant get them validated on the new system. how can i migrate all that to a newer windows, and what version? 7, 8 ? i already have a 1 TB sata hard drive. i'd like to buy a tower with space for my burner and soundblaster. the soundblaster sits in a drive bay. where can i buy one? can i clone my drive to the sata drive? i'd like to keep the old unit intact will setting up the new one.

thanks
mike
 
A board with IDE? That's not going to happen my friend. I don't know why you'd want any kind of parallel interface for anything. They were terrible.

Yes you can clone the IDE drive to the SATA drive. Pick up a SATA to IDE adapter and a copy of Acronis and clone that sucker over.

Many of your 32 bit Win XP programs WILL NOT work with Win 10, which is what you should be getting if you are building a new computer. PCI is becoming a rare beast but there are still boards that have it, just not many. Integrated sound has come a very long way since 10 years ago, and you may find that a decent integrated setup sounds better than that soundblaster, which, again, likely DOES NOT have drivers in Win10, probably not even Win7.

Your wireless wifi PCI card will be the same deal, you most likely will not find compatible drivers. You're welcome to screw around and see what you can find. driver identifier and PCI database are the sites I would be checking using the hardwareID you get from device manager in windows as a search term.

Honestly, you should really just ditch all your dino-gear and start fresh. The SATA HDD can stay, but the rest is obsolete junk at this point. Don't worry though, computer parts are cheap these days. 500GB HDDs are like $50 and DVD burners can be had for $14. Your new motherboard will sound better than your soundblaster.

By the way there is this (sort of?) recent thing called a solid state drive which you should totally incorporate into your new PC. I have a really crappy one (Samsung 840 EVO) and once my machine POSTS I'm in windows at the login screen in about 3 seconds. They make them 5X faster than the one I have. They're not even that expensive any more.

So what do you want to do here? Are you a gamer? What will you be doing with your new PC? What is your budget? What country are you located in?

BTW You should really stop using that XP machine online like, immediately. XP hasn't gotten updates for a very loooong time and security on it is looser than a cheerleader after a bottle of vodka at a frat party. If I were in your shoes I'd be running a recent linux build instead for increased security until you get your new Windows machine up and running. I really hope you don't shop or bank online. Even things you would never expect to be in danger of theft can be stolen, like your Steam/Origin/Uplay etc etc accounts for example. Keyloggers are evil things.
 
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Well, Win 10 gives you Direct X 12 among other improvements. It'll be around a lot longer than 7. 7 support ends in 2020, which means that within 4 years you will need a new OS for that machine.
Windows updates are handled better in Win 10. It has better sound functionality. and a lot of features like better window snapping and you can make any window active my mousing over it. It's just better.
 
Darren said:
While true, he did say he's running a Pentium at 3GHz so I doubt that's a concern. :p
Click to expand...
Considering he was asking what kind of motherboard he should be looking at, I doubt he's still looking at processors from that era. ;)

Honestly, @puckhead, if your system's old enough to natively support IDE devices, it's time to move on and grab everything brand new and start from scratch. There's really nothing I'd carry over from tech that was THAT old.
 
mistersprinkles said:
Well, Win 10 gives you Direct X 12 among other improvements. It'll be around a lot longer than 7. 7 support ends in 2020, which means that within 4 years you will need a new OS for that machine.
Windows updates are handled better in Win 10. It has better sound functionality. and a lot of features like better window snapping and you can make any window active my mousing over it. It's just better.
Click to expand...

You're right about DirectX 12, but most softwares today are not ready for it and use DirectX 11 instead, which is supported by Windows 7. And yes, updates are handled better, because Microsoft themselves said that this could be their last OS so that means many updates on Win 10 for the next years. And most people still preffer Windows 7 for many reasons. (like the friendlier Interface and stability)

EDIT: if someone is still interested in building new PC and searches for advices, check pcpartpicker.com or visit LinusTechTips on youtube for help.
 
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