Replacing parts but keeping OS

[Bisirko]

Hey everyone,

I have an older model e-machine computer that is just getting too old to handle my video gaming habits. I just bought a new ASUS A8N32 Deluxe motherboard, AMD Opteron 170 CPU, FSP 450wt PSU, and a BFG geForce 7600 gt video card, plus I am upgrading to a larger mid size ATX case to fit the motherboard. I want to use my e-machine hard drive, 1 gb memory i bought, cd drives and new sound card i had from before, and also the new parts I bought from new egg, but I didn't buy an OS cuz i figured id save some money and see if I could either use the OS on my hard drive, or use a cd from a friend using the cd key on the case of my e-machine. Can some1 please walk me through how i should set this system up without going out and buying a new OS.....

 

[robin_bga]

You can do that, it the key won't help you, so you need a key of the cd itself.Plus Emachine is different from Asus, so the operating system won't work at all, you need to do a fresh installation.the hard drive will work if its a sata or IDE, hard disk don't refuse.
The rest if fine.
Wish you luck
Robin

 

[Bisirko]

?

Alright well I know somebody that did something similar to what I have done. He said I can install all of the gear and then get a copy of a windows XP cd from somebody and then all I need is that key on the back of the machine. I've heard so many things about being able to do this and not being able to do this so my head is in a spin