PSU upgrade question
 

Hi
I have recently got a new case for my PC, It has cathodes and a few gadgets, I have also recieved a DVD-RW drive. My question is can I simply upgrade from a 250w PSU to a 500W or will it blow my mother board?
Im running a
P4 1.1GHz PC
512MB RAM
Nvinda 3200 Graphincs card
Two floppy drives
Segate hard drive
Samsung 2nd hard drive
DVD drive
DVD RW drive

will it be OK to go for the 500w PSU? sorry if it seems a silly question. [img]Download Failed (1)[/img]

Also, If I upgrade my motherboard, chip and RAM, can I just use the old hard drives with it, or does everything need to be re-installed?
Id like to go to about 2.00GHz.
Sorry if both seem silly, just sometime the obviuos questions are the ones you cant answer. [img]Download Failed (1)[/img]
[img]Download Failed (1)[/img]

Re: PSU upgrade question
 

As long as you use the correct connector from the PSU you'll be fine. The bigger PSU has more connectors than the old one, so you can connect more to it, but each type of connector supplies a standard voltage.

If you upgrade the mobo and CPU you can still use the same drives, but you will need to reload the OS.

HTH

Re: PSU upgrade question
 

500w will be fine - the rating is to do with how much power it can supply - you will not be using the whole of the abailable power, but it will not blow the MoBo.

If you are running XP, you will be ok to use the existing HD, but you will have to do a "repair" using the original XP CD (so if you do not have a full install CD this can be very tricky).

I notice that you are running an Nvidia Gfx card, and from experiance, I would uninstall the drivers before you do the upgrade, as I have found that Nvidia drivers cause the repair to fail (I spent a couple of very frustrated hours finding that out ;) ).

You may or may not need to re-activate windows - I found on mine that when I replaced everything but the GFX card and the HD - I was ok - but I then upgraded the GFX card and had to re-register.

HTH

Zovat

Re: PSU upgrade question
 

A high wattage psu won't blow your kit, got a seriously overpowered one in the llama of a system downstairs.

As for the hard drives, no need to format but as zovat said, i have had one xp pro installation moved between four motherboards, had to reinstall windows each time, next time i'll try repairing it though ^, thanks zovat :)

Re: PSU upgrade question
 

Not quite, if the drive controllers on the motherboard are different, e.g. Intel - Via , a repair will not get you past the INACCESIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE bsod on boot. If the drive controllers are compatible e.g. Intel - Intel or Via - Via then you can normally simply swap the drives over and boot up as normal, I've done it many a time, I've gone from Via -> Nforce -> Nforce2 -> Nforce3 with no problems without having to repair or reinstall.

Re: PSU upgrade question
 

Exactly, just like on your home power circuit, you could plug a 3000w Heater into a socket, or a 60w lightbulb into it, both will work, as the voltage they need is the same.