Instead of buying a new Win 8 machine or attempting a new ground up build, I was thinking of just upgrading the motherboard, processor and RAM on my 8 yr old, Dell, Windows XP 32 bit desktop to an ASUS P8Z77 motherboard with i7-2600K processor and 8 gigs of RAM.

2 yrs ago I replaced the power supply, fan and hard drive so know they are in good shape.

After seeing all the problems people are having adjusting to the new non intuitive Win 8 system, which most new computers come with now, I thought I'd stick with what I'm comfortable with and save some $$$ at the same time.

My question is, can I change the MB etc ,plug in the old hard drive with XP on it and expect it to work, will I have to do a complete system re-install or is this just a can of worms waiting to be opened?

Thanks for any input,
Carkins