Changing from Intel to AMD (+ a new Motherboard), what exactly do I need to do this safely?

[Sam Joseph]

I made this post a little while ago but I wasn't as specific so here's take two. As the title suggests, I'll be switching to AMD in the next couple days from my old i5-4690k to the new 3900x. And I have 0 idea what to do besides unplug everything and replug it back in. I really need you guys to be ridiculously specific so I don't miss any oversights because not only am I switching brands but I'm also switching motherboards too, all while it being my first time doing such an upgrade. I've tried looking at and for videos but they simply go over the hardware part of things when I'm unnaturally nervous about the software issues with drivers/reinstalling Widows 10 (which I've never done and have no idea how to do). Be as thorough and descriptive as possible, (though it already seems like so) describe exactly what I need to do like I've never even seen a PC in my life. Thanks in advance if I personally forget to do so!

[Aimi]

14 minutes ago, Sam Joseph said:

drivers/reinstalling Widows 10 (which I've never done and have no idea how to do)

It's pretty much just
Make bootable CD/USB > boot from said media > follow what the installer says

And when you're doing the Windows reinstall, it'll grab the drivers you need

[Sorenson]

You will need to do a fresh install of windows. Your boot drive won't work that has the intel drivers from my experience. 

[Sam Joseph]

13 minutes ago, Aimi said:

It's pretty much just
Make bootable CD/USB > boot from said media > follow what the installer says

And when you're doing the Windows reinstall, it'll grab the drivers you need

So I don't have to worry about manually deleting and reinstalling drivers?

[Aimi]

1 minute ago, Sam Joseph said:

So I don't have to worry about manually deleting and reinstalling drivers?

Reinstalling the OS should get everything covered for you, at worst you have some leftover files.

[Gegger]

2 minutes ago, Sam Joseph said:

So I don't have to worry about manually deleting and reinstalling drivers?

No because you need to do a fresh install

[paulmohr]

How many drives do you have in your current system? Just one, or do you have a boot drive like an ssd or something and then a larger drive to store games and stuff on?

 

Do you want to save anything from your old set up like game saves/profiles, browser history and set up, pictures, videos, documents stuff like that? Or are you going to say screw it and just start all over.

 

You will need a usb thumb drive to put the windows install on.

 

You will also have to re activate windows most likely so you will need your windows key.

[Sam Joseph]

2 minutes ago, paulmohr said:

How many drives do you have in your current system? Just one, or do you have a boot drive like an ssd or something and then a larger drive to store games and stuff on?

 

Do you want to save anything from your old set up like game saves/profiles, browser history and set up, pictures, videos, documents stuff like that? Or are you going to say screw it and just start all over.

 

You will need a usb thumb drive to put the windows install on.

 

You will also have to re activate windows most likely so you will need your windows key.

I have an SSD (which has nothing on it, haven't got around to really using it), and a regular Hard Drive with all my stuff on it.

 

I'd like to save everything if possible, but if it comes down to it just the apps, files, and a couple folders is fine.

 

I got a USB, and I am pretty sure I know how to at least get it on the USB (not so much how to use it after I've swapped everything out).

 

What if I have Windows 10 digitally linked to my account? Can I use my Microsoft account to re activate it or must I have the key/go find it?

[Aimi]

1 minute ago, Sam Joseph said:

What if I have Windows 10 digitally linked to my account? Can I use my Microsoft account to re activate it or must I have the key/go find it?

If it's linked to your Microsoft account, just sign in and everything should work.

[paulmohr]

Ya sometimes windows account thing works. I have heard some say it didn't though. I never tried it because I don't have my linked to their stuff. I just use a local account. If you purchased the computer as like a prebuilt or something the windows key should be on a sticker somewhere, on the side or the back. It isn't a huge deal honestly, you can use windows 10 without activating it, and you can get windows keys online pretty cheap.

 

Having a blank SSD will make things easier. If you didn't have one I was going to suggest getting one. You can just use that as your boot/os drive in your new system and leave your old drive alone for now. Basically when you put your new one together you won't hook up the old drive at first, just the new empty drive. The bios will see it as the only drive and automatically make it the boot drive. The installation thumb drive should format the new drive and install windows. After all that is done you can shut the computer down and connect the old drive. Then its just a matter of intalling your programs again, transferring things around and cleaning up the old drive.

 

If you need it I can help walk you through it when the time comes. Its 2 am for me though and I need to go to bed. I will check back on this tomorrow to if someone that knows more than me is helping you or not. Don't panic, it is not that hard, just tedious.

[Sam Joseph]

17 minutes ago, paulmohr said:

Ya sometimes windows account thing works. I have heard some say it didn't though. I never tried it because I don't have my linked to their stuff. I just use a local account. If you purchased the computer as like a prebuilt or something the windows key should be on a sticker somewhere, on the side or the back. It isn't a huge deal honestly, you can use windows 10 without activating it, and you can get windows keys online pretty cheap.

 

Having a blank SSD will make things easier. If you didn't have one I was going to suggest getting one. You can just use that as your boot/os drive in your new system and leave your old drive alone for now. Basically when you put your new one together you won't hook up the old drive at first, just the new empty drive. The bios will see it as the only drive and automatically make it the boot drive. The installation thumb drive should format the new drive and install windows. After all that is done you can shut the computer down and connect the old drive. Then its just a matter of intalling your programs again, transferring things around and cleaning up the old drive.

 

If you need it I can help walk you through it when the time comes. Its 2 am for me though and I need to go to bed. I will check back on this tomorrow to if someone that knows more than me is helping you or not. Don't panic, it is not that hard, just tedious.

Will I need to go delete the boot stuff off of my hard drive that I'll but in after making the SSD the boot drive or no?

[TheLaserCucumber]

Nobody Needs to do a fresh install after a Mainboard Change, not with Windows 10.

You can just unplug your SSD from your Intel Rig and plug it into the AMD one, I did it yesterday, changed from an i7 4770K to R7 3700X with the same SSD and Windows Install, works just like it should

[Origami Cactus]

22 minutes ago, TheLaserCucumber said:

Nobody Needs to do a fresh install after a Mainboard Change, not with Windows 10.

You can just unplug your SSD from your Intel Rig and plug it into the AMD one, I did it yesterday, changed from an i7 4770K to R7 3700X with the same SSD and Windows Install, works just like it should

I went from i5 6600 to r7 1700, it absolutely didn't work, reinstall was the only option 

[TheLaserCucumber]

37 minutes ago, Origami Cactus said:

I went from i5 6600 to r7 1700, it absolutely didn't work, reinstall was the only option 

Can't imagine that, Windows 10 detects something like this and deactivates the Drivers automatically.

1803 was the first Version that I tried something like this with (Change from Z270 to Z97) and it worked absolutely great, just like a Change from Q45 to H110.

[diwall]

Generally from my point of view, when I get a new system, i prefer to reinstall the OS, like a new fresh version of my computer. There is a lot of troubles with drivers when you change your components, even if it's a LOT better now with Windows 10. Maybe you can try to just change the driver when you buy a new graphic card, but when the combo MB  + CPU is changed, it's like a new computer for me and I prefer refresh everything (not the data part, only the partition with the OS installed). A brand new installation of Window cannot be bad sometimes .

[dodancs]

Hello, I am also interested in switching platforms and I have a question about migrating RAID 1 storage from Intel to AMD.

 

Since people are reacting here, I tought I would have a bigger chance to get a reply if I also post my thread here:

 

 

[paulmohr]

Can you swap drives, yes you can, I have done it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Is it the best idea in the world, no not really. You could end up with driver issues, software conflicts and stuff like that. Not to mention windows gets cluttered up over time and it doesn't hurt to do a re install every now and then anyway. When I switched from my 1500x to a 3600 and new motherboard a few weeks ago I did it without re installing windows. I didn't even delete my drivers. I just dropped my old drives in the system and it booted up and worked. Then I went through and removed my drivers and re installed them. A little later I decided to just re install windows anyway. I wanted to move to 1903 anyway. My performance did go up after doing the re install. So while my system was working, it probably wasn't working as well as it should have. Just becuase your system doesn't crash and stuff doesn't always mean it is working right or the best that it can.

 

And in the OP's case he specifically has concerns about uninstalling and re installing drivers and what not. If he was comfortable working with drivers, and trouble shooting software and stuff then I would say yes, give it a shot. And it is a non issue because he has a fresh SSD that he will be installing so he is going to have to put an operating system on it anyway.

4 hours ago, dodancs said:

Hello, I am also interested in switching platforms and I have a question about migrating RAID 1 storage from Intel to AMD.

That I have no idea on. I have never messed with a raid set up. I have thought about it from time to time but never actually did it. Hopefully someone smarter than me will answer you lol.

 

8 hours ago, Sam Joseph said:

Will I need to go delete the boot stuff off of my hard drive that I'll but in after making the SSD the boot drive or no?

No, you shouldn't have to. The bios will determin which drive it boots to. And if you only have one drive installed to begin with it should set that up as the boot drive. If it doesn't work after putting the old drive back it might just be a matter checking the bios to make sure it didn't change the boot order. I say "should" because in my experience nothing is a given with computers lol.

[Hubriz]

I'm doing exactly this (switching out my Intel CPU, GPU, and Mobo for AMD components); however, I created a system image of multiple hard drives onto one single external HDD.  I also have a USB flash drive that I burned Windows 10 onto using the 'Windows Media Creation Tool' that I will use as my boot drive.  I understand that I will need to use the backup/restore software with which I created the system image initially once I reboot after switching out those pieces of hardware.  What I don't understand is how will those hard drives, assuming I didn't wipe them, behave when I 1) reboot my system with them plugged in and 2) go to use the backup/restore software to restore the system image of all my drives?   I hope I illustrated my predicament quite clearly, but if not, please ask me to do so further.  Thanks! 

[Chadt]

After reading through some issues people were having, lets get one thing straight on this subject. Switching from Intel to AMD platform is a matter of loading new drivers and required files which are almost fully automatic. It seems that the issue is more of the type of Windows license you have. 

Yesterday I just replaced my system board. I switched out my Asus ROG Strix Z270 motherboard with an Intel i6600k CPU and replaced my system with MSI X570 ACE installed with an AMD Ryzen 9 5950x + memory. I am reusing my WD Black M.2, GPU and PSU as were recently upgraded late last year. My WD M.2 was installed with a retail version of Win 10 Home, and upgraded to Win 10 Pro via the Microsoft Store. 

After assembling the new MB / CPU, I started up Windows and immediately in the startup screen it started updating files and a few minutes later the system rebooted and was shown my usual startup screen. 

I was able to log in and access the system and proceeded to continue the system and file “cleanup” which includes downloading the support files from MSI site / installing and later removing all files related to the old ASUS MB. 

Windows did show that there were significant hardware changes and was not activated. I accessed the Windows Activation screen in Settings and clicked on troubleshooting which came up with some instructions on how to reactivate. Mine being a retail Win 10 Home + Win 10 Pro upgrade (digital license) the activation went through without a hitch. 

It is advised to make a backup of your files before attempting this as in IT things don’t always go as planned. 

Cheers!