Hi y’all, i used to be so prolific at the whole pc building thing. but now i’m out of the game with age and not buying stuff in a while. so here’s my question:

my PC is fine and i upgraded parts of it during the years. but it may be time for a new motherboard, since mine only supports 32gb of RAM which isnt enough anymore.

what do I need to do to replace my motherboard? I guess, i’d have to re-install everything, right? Isn’t windows and all the software kinda bound to my motherboard?

since i’m fine with my 2060Super, i guess getting a new PC is not worth it, my case and hard drives are fine. i will need new RAM and SSDs. So what should I look for in a motherboard?

thanks for reading this ramble

  • PineRune@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    If you aren’t upgrading your CPU, make sure the new motherboard is still compatible with it.

    • Mighty@lemmy.worldOP
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      6 months ago

      i guess I would. my CPU is as old as the MoBo. its a I7 4770K (which came out in 2013 RIP), i think that proves i made a great investment back then for my PC to still run great after 10+ years Oo…

      • fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        6 months ago

        4th Gen. Intel only supports DDR3 which maxes out at 32 gigs of ram across the 4 sockets. You’d need to upgrade your entire CPU/MOBO/RAM to get more than 32.

        Getting a new mobo you can only sidegrade at best. You could get z97 for M.2 NVME support, but not more ram.

      • wirelesswire@kbin.run
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        6 months ago

        Typically when looking at upgrades, I upgrade the cpu, mobo, and ram together. Since a new mobo normally means support for faster cpu/ram (and possibly a new socket, so a new cpu is needed anyways), it makes sense to upgrade the 3 at the same time.

      • Albbi@lemmy.ca
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        6 months ago

        Oh no, be careful here. Your old cpu uses the LGA 1150 socket type. You probably can’t find any recently manufactured motherboards that target that socket type.

        When new CPU architectures are released, the socket type is usually changed as well and they’re not always compatible with older versions.

        My usual rule is that when upgrading the mobo or CPU, always upgrade the other as well.