changing my fried motherboard from amd to intel need help

[iamfutant]

This site has a lot of great information and folks that know their stuff, so I'm hoping I could get some advice. To get right to it, lightning struck my cave and my motherboard was among the casualties. The computer is an hp bought right from office depot less than a year ago. It has an amd-a8 and I want to swap to an intel-I5. It is a matx mobo. I'm still trying to decide on a good one, so advice there would be great. Anyway to get to my real questions. The computer didn't come with a Windows disk, I had to burn the reinstall dvds. Can I use these to reinstall Windows or do I need to buy a retail copy. Will reinstalling Windows reformat my hdd. I don't have much on it, so losing the data won't be a big deal. One last thing, I would like to do some home recording on this computer. Do I need to look at higher end mobos geared toward gamers or would a mid rage one suffice. Thanks to any and all advice.

 

[RaDiKaL_]

Reinstalling windows doesn't necessary have to format your HDD, however it's always best to format the partition on which you are going to install the new OS.

For Home recording you don't really need an expensive board, as long as you have SATA III (for faster read times) and a gigabit NIC (which is standard nowadays) you should be good to go mobo wise, both features are usually available even in the least expensive motherboards.

As for the license situation, it depends if it was OEM or retail license, you could try to install and see if it gets activated.

 

[johnnyb105]

To be honest with you I have never encounter that before the set up disks maybe for amd only and when you try to install them it may fail or it may not did you have a surge protector in place maybe want to invest a few bucks before replacing the board and cpu right now win 7 and win 8 are around 100 bucks at new egg dont go to microsoft they wanted 199 bucks for win 8 pro thats not happen for me lol good luck.

 

[iamfutant]

To be honest with you I have never encounter that before the set up disks maybe for amd only and when you try to install them it may fail or it may not did you have a surge protector in place maybe want to invest a few bucks before replacing the board and cpu right now win 7 and win 8 are around 100 bucks at new egg dont go to microsoft they wanted 199 bucks for win 8 pro thats not happen for me lol good luck.

Yea I was afraid that the setup disks may have some tie ins with the motherboard and cpu. Oh well, I'll probably just buy a retail copy. I've replaced the crap surge protector with a good one.

The next step is deciding on a motherboard. I've been looking at a lot of them. Any suggestions on any for 125 to150. Any brand preferences.