Motherboard Upgrade

Hello All I am wanting to know if it is possible to upgrade to a new motherboard and processor, and use the current hardrive DVD drives and memory. I have a Dell inspiron 530 that is 3 years old. Over the last year I have had to replace my power suppy it had failed, and went to a larger hardrive. I am now thinking of upgrading the motherboard and processor. I will be putting in a new case. I am running Windows 7 32 bit. Is this possible to and if so any tips or tricks anybody can offer me. Thanks for your replies

The simple answer is yes, BUT, it depends what you are working with, being a Dell you could of faced major restrictions, they use various fixings that means only a few boards will fit, but as you're getting a new case that wont apply here, but I mention it so you know. Now the next restriction is the rest of you're hardware, specifically ram, without knowing what you currently have means we can't say how it will restrict you're choices, hard drives and optical derives will work in pretty much anything as a rule, but the ram type (eg DDR2, DDR3 etc) will only work in a select range of boards. My guess is you probably have DDR2 ram, or older, although you can get a reasonable system running this ram, it can obviously be improved by getting something better, but it all depends on how big a jump there is in the tech when you buy it, DDR2 was able to be used in numerous new builds for a few years, but with DDR3 out it means to use any of the newest boards will probably mean you need to upgrade the ram as well, if you can tell us what ram you have, and just how new a system you want, and what you want from it, we can try and guide you better.

Thanks for the reply I do know that the ram must match the board, I currently have DDR2 ram. I am not looking for mush of an upgrade my current system is a Core 2 Duo processor running at 2.20 GHz I am looking at 2 diffent boards one with a corei3 processor, that I know I will have to get ram to match the board, the other being a Core 2 Duo with a 2.93GHz processor board taking DDR2 ram witch I will be able to swap my ram over.. I am not into gaming mostly internet and movies. The reason for the motherboard upgrade is due to the fact I am almost sure my PCI express slot does not work on my MOBO. I have tried 2 different graphics cards and neither worked in my computer.Both worked fine in other computers. Thanks

As you say if going for the i3 you will need too upgrade the ram as well, this was why I said above about it, so the big question you need to answer is how much, and I mean for both cost, and performance, it can be argued that sticking with DDR2 boards just to use you're current ram is a false economy, and my opinion on this is unless you can get a big enough change up, for a really good price, then you would be far better served going the i3 route with new ram, so have a look at pricing both options, then see what the price difference is between them, then see if the performance boost makes it worth it, hope this helps you start deciding on you're best options.

I am going to go with a i3 board and update ram after looking at prices not mush more to go this route and this will give me a more up to date system that will at least a couple of years. Any tricks or things to watch out for on a motherboard swap? I plan on leaving my hardrive alone running windows 7 32 bit. Will I have any issues with my Windows License? Thanks

Thats a good choice IMHO, but there are no special tricks, just the obvious anti static precautions while handling parts etc, but you will need to do a fresh install, so my advice is always go to the makers site and download the newest drivers for the hardware involved so you're good to go when the parts arrive, as to the licence, that can get a bit grey, to follow the exact terms you would probably need to buy a new OS, or licence for the new build, but I think it's safe to say that as long as you own the OS, and will be using it on the 1 machine, most will deem it as OK, the worst case ring m$ and explain you've just put a new board in the PC and thats why you're needing to activate again, but I doubt there's be a problem. But there is an important thing to be aware of, if you're system came with the OS on a hidden partition, and nearly all (if not all) come that way, unless you have a disk of the OS, installing could be a pain, if possible at all, as it's windows 7 one would hope it will find enough of what it needs driver wise to get it booting, then you can add the correct (latest) drivers for it, but TBH if you don't have a disk of the OS, I really don't know what will happen, I can only speculate as it's not something I've seen or done before, as the makers will have streamlined the partition to the specific hardware for installing. About the only other advice I have is take note of the case wires, more so if you have no other connection to the net, the wires in the case, and the pins on the board are not always obvious, it can be tricky figuring out what wire goes where, you'd think it wouldn't be hard for them to have a universal terminology for the wires\pins, but they don't, so make sure you figure out what wire goes where, and figure out the + and - wires, the - wires are often the same colour, but not always, so be clear in you're mind where these go before starting, of course if you can still get on the net while doing the work it's easy to get more help\info, but if this is you're only net access then make sure you are prepared before starting, hope this helps.