Motherboard upgrade

Thunderhammer · April 11, 2016

First of all, I would like to extend my greetings to you all, as I am new here.

Hello!

Now that we have that out of the way, lets move on the the meat and potatoes: I was thinking about upgrading my motherboard. I have a Dell Inspiron 660 with it's stock MOBO, which only handles 8gb of DDR3 1600MHz. I was thinking of upgrading to the AS Rock ATX Z77 EXTREME4. Only thing is, I don't know how to go about doing this, or how difficult/easy this process is. I have searched over YouTube and Google, but all I can find are vague or blurry answers, that or I watch a video where the guy/gal runs through it so fast, I don't fully understand what they are doing. As for trying to "avoid" having to re-install windows, that doesn't matter, so long as I know how to get my rig back running. If it helps or is relevant, My CPU socket is lga 1155 and Im just trying to upgrade to a beefier MOBO. Thank you in advance (if anyone replies).

jslowik · April 12, 2016

One thing to consider is that the Windows license is likely an OEM which means it's tied to that motherboard. You may have issues performing this upgrade without purchasing a new Windows license.

That being said a few questions. Does the motherboard only support 8gb or was that the highest that was offered? You'd essentially be rebuilding the computer by changing motherboards. Check out some system builds on YouTube. With a little mechanical aptitude and perseverance you should be good to go.

Thunderhammer · April 12, 2016

3 minutes ago, jslowik said:

One thing to consider is that the Windows license is likely an OEM which means it's tied to that motherboard. You may have issues performing this upgrade without purchasing a new Windows license.

That being said a few questions. Does the motherboard only support 8gb or was that the highest that was offered? You'd essentially be rebuilding the computer by changing motherboards. Check out some system builds on YouTube. With a little mechanical aptitude and perseverance you should be good to go.

No, it only supports up to 8gb, I currently have it maxed out with two 4gb sticks of Kingston.