Ok I have a chance to upgrade my 2.6 celeron, 512ram, nvidia 5200 to a Dual Core, 2 gig ram, nvida 7300gt for next to nothing. My question is will this screw up my installation?

I am running 12.1 fully encrypted... the hard drive,motherboard,case will not be changed.

thx for any help.

Linux is not windows. You can change your hardware as much as you want as long as you have the right drivers available. New CPU and RAM will work the same, and you already have an nvidia driver (hopefully that isn't buggy...). So go right ahead.

thx. I am using the generic-smp kernel I assume pretty much all the drivers are in there... or should I switch to hugesmp first?

edit: I figured the vid card and ram were no issues... but I was a little worried about going from celeron to dual core.

You should delete /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules and
/etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-cd.rules. They will be regenerated
for any new or relocated hardware. (see CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT concerning udev)

/etc/X11/xorg.conf will likely need editing.

The generic-smp kernel may need a new initrd. If so, boot with hugesmp to make one.
(If you boot to the CD/DVD and DON'T just press enter, but READ the first screen,
you'll see how to bypass a non-functioning kernel and boot your system
by using one of the kernels on the CD/DVD. Chrooting is not required)

EDIT: wait, if all that's changing is the cpu/ram/gpu,
all you'll probably have to muck with is xorg.conf
and video drivers. Also if you're going with 4 gigs (or more)
of ram you'll need to compile support for that much ram into the kernel.
(not much benefit to that though. IMHO.)

I think it'll probably be fine. Just ensure you switch to run level three if you currently have a graphical log-in, then re-run xorgconfig or xorgsetup for your new video card.