I have an hp desktop with vista and slic 2.0. The onboard Ethernet port died due to lightning. I had 2 pci slots, one with a tv tuner and one with an extra 5 usb ports. I had to pull out the usb pci card and put an ethernet card in that slot. Now I'm really getting annoyed at having to unplug and replug in usb cords all over. I could buy the same mobo, but would probably have to reactivate vista all over again, or I could buy a non hp motherboard, but would have to buy a new vista or windows 7 license. Could I instead buy a motherboard from a newer hp desktop, so that it comes with slic 2.1, and swap it with the existing mobo, so I could install windows 7 without having to buy another license? As far as I can tell, all my other peripherals are installed with non-hp drivers. The thing that I'm not sure about is whether it will accept my current amd processor and if it will support the massive amount of video, audio, usb, and firewire front ports I have. Any advice? Thanks.