HP DV6 Mobo swapout ->Recovery Vista 32 ->Win7 64

Would like to get my ducks in a row as to doing this and see if there's some problems i don't know about or better ideas of how to go about it.
Hp Pavilion Dv6 - vista 32bit

1)Have a new mobo on its way,4650 GPU mobo,taking out a 4530 GPU mobo.
As i understand i install the mobo and reboot using the F11 key which will hopefully have the system recognise the new mobo ok & install vista 32 all back to system default OR let me create recovery disc's with the new mobo "tattoo" recognised to do the same.
Correct or not?

2) The FREE upgrade to Win7 cost's $39 to ship to South Africa + waiting time so i'm probably just going to buy a retail copy of Win 7 and install the 64bit version.
Installing that will no doubt reformat the HD removing whatever HP has put there so before i do that should i collect what win7 drivers i can and drop them on a usb drive prior or do you think win7 will be able to load enough drivers to allow me to download drivers once its installed?

3)Is there any things HP have got hidden on the HD that reformatting is going to cause an issue with?
I guessing the recovery partion will get wiped.

 

There are pretty big chances that your new mobo will work without a reinstall, as it is very similar to your old one.

I have wiped the recovery partition on both of my laptops as soon as i got them, and there have been no problems.

The drivers will be available from HP, they aren't leaving anywhere, so you can just download them once you get Win7 installed, since networking, both wired and wireless, will work out of the box. However you should install the HP provided drivers for network too, the generic Microsoft drivers will have your network running slower than it should, and they can cause sound issues on some systems.

 

OK thanks..think i'm going to add a T9600 while i'm in there,with all thats got to be opened up i think i'd be silly not to with h/sink off etc .....Like to make it a T9900 but prices in that top tier are b/s