Hi. I have an old Inspiron 1100 with a busted motherboard. I want to replace it with another Inspiron 1100 motherboard so my son can use it for games. I'm in uncharted waters here, but I'm a quick study and good with my hands. I have a few questions.

1)Will this be very difficult? I know companys want $$ so are there any little 'snags' that could be a problem.

2)Should I buy just the motherboard or a motherboard and case? The case we have is fine but would it be easier to switch over my drives and screen?

3)Or am I just wasting my time?

Thanks all!

You shouldn't have an issue with your case. However, replacing a motherboard isn't as simple as it sounds. Luckily, the instructions is comes with should make it easier to deal with. The part you may have trouble with is the heatsink/CPU removal. You need to be very careful with doing that, so as to not bend the pins. If you can do this without separating the two, then cool. However, if you have to separate the two, perform the following steps prior to removing them:

- turn the machine on and run some CPU intensive applications
- after about 10 minutes, shut the machine down and unplug everything from the machine
- unlatch the locking mechanism of the heatsink
- slightly twist and pull the heatsink off (don't apply too much pressure)

If you do this, you'll need to get some Arctic Silver thermal paste to reapply to the heatsink after you get done cleaning both the bottom of the heatsink and the top of the CPU.


To be completely honest, you might be better off buying a cheap barebone kit. TigerDirect.com sells them from around $200-$250. Plus, you get additional insurrance on those parts. If you mess up any part of the transfer, you're pretty much screwed and have to replace parts.