Of course the HD; that's just obvious. However swapping a CPU on a manufacturer built system will also prevent you from using the OS supplied? Not that I will ever need a change, but after all this; this is probably going to be the last time I buy any computer from a big manufacturer name. :-|

Isn't the motherboard the only major component?

Thanks a lot too. I guess when I buy my new mobo, I'll have to add an OS or linux to the shopping cart. Not a problem - thanks for the clarification

alright - thanks a lot for your help

I would like to get the OCZ 800 EXS for £70 as it's great value for money and I don't think I'll ever need to upgrade that. Well the thing is, is that I'm actually stuck with this mobo for a few more months at least; so I'm wondering if his problem is a one off and that I may be lucky and have my 4850 rum ok - of course it wont match the performance of a 4850 on a UD3 board but will it be significantly better than my 8600GS?

So far two PC experts have stated that my OS may be tied to my mobo; however, I'm asking rily from the Packard Bell forums for a final answer on that question. Since my budget is very tight at the moment, and have no reason to start clean again (OS-wise), and am desperate for a new gfx card and monitor to make good use of it; I may decide to get the motherboard in the near future, when hopefully i7 boards drop in price or something like that. Thanks a lot for your help you saved me from buying a £60 OS at least

Well the thing is that many people have told me that my OS is 'tied' to my motherboard so I can't run it without the Foxconn motherboard I'm currently using. Is this true?

If you don't mind, if you read this topic, you'll understand why I'm asking this question on Vista, and considering your knowledge on how to install a motherboard; perhaps you can give me advice on how to use my £300-400 budget? Otherwise, I think you've pretty much answered my question - however, I forgot to tell you, I wont have a motherboard on hand until I know exactly how to get around spending my money, so I can't do any testing.

First of all, thank you very much for your speedy reply. Just to clarify on what you've just said, I take it that I can just torrent a version of Vista Premium 32-bit, (however it has to be Home Premium?) and use that to install a clean copy of Vista on my existing HD, yet cannot use my existing operating system? Sounds like a bit of a hassle to me . I also suppose if I replace my current mobo with a new one, I definitely wont be able to use the existing OS? My ideal solution is to obtain a free copy of Vista and/or simply install my new motherboard, and keep the OS and all the settings on my current hard drive and be able to run it on my new motherboard as if it were my old motherboard without installing a clean version of Windows. Is that possible? With my current OS licence key having already been registered, will I still be able to verify my version of Windows as being genuine after installing Vista again?

Recently (about 6 months ago), I bought a Packard Bell IXTREME 2712 Barebone PC, product code 072578, with a manufacturer's warranty period of 12 months; which is basically this PC, however slightly modified of their own accord, so that it had 2x360GB hard drives instead of 1x500. It came with Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit pre-installed; however the PC is lacking a good motherboard and since (I think) the OS is tied to the motherboard - I'll need a new OS. Is there anyway I can be refunded so that I can run my existing OS on my current hard drive on a new motherboard? Thanks, Oliver