network adapter dead?

Good deal! There's a different system here with warranties, if I get the chance I'll ask around if it's possible to do it like you can, I'll probably get blank stares.

You're welcome,

Doesn't hurt to overthink. I would think that doing a swap with an identical port wouldn't cause problems even with a different prefix, if your worried about the drivers just uninstall the old ones before you start then during the install windows should ask if you want to use its generic or yours that came with the port, click for yours. The main devices windows looks for are the MB and HDD but check with the store rep, if s/he doesn't know try to get a hold of someone on their geek-squad.
While your at it ask about that white cover piece I hope you don't need a special tool to remove it maybe you can borrow one from them if it does.

Worst case is you'll have to call windows phone activation and everything you need to know is here: Activate Windows 7 by Phone Read this over before you start there's one part in the note box that explains about hardware changes.

chaosrealm93 said:

ehh i dont think theyre "local"
they're canadian but have stores nationwide

yup, thanks for the tips :)

hopefully there arent any "hardware identifiers" that will mess with the swap
meaning lets say for arguments sake, the drivers were originally installed to a piece of hardware with name "ABC"
now i swapped the board and the new hardware, though same model, is now named "DEF" and the existing drivers have a conflict with the new "DEF" hardware

hopefully im just overthinking

It's quite likely that Windows already has the drivers built in. Vista and higher have a lot more native drivers than XP. Windows will grab the appropriate one and install it. You would probably have to install drivers for a wireless adapter but all the necessary ethernet drivers are built in to windows. Speaking of wireless, if you have to buy a card you might want to go wireless since your modem is in another room and has wireless built in. I recommend a usb dongle rather than a internal card if you wish to go that route.