Selling a motherboard, CPU, RAM

[RhysMusique]

Hey all,

 

This is gonna be the most stupid question on the forum in a while. But double safe is the best way to be.

 

I'm going to sell a few old PC Parts on eBay over the next few days, A  Z77 motherboard, 3570K CPU and some Vengeance RAM. 

These components were my daily PC for about 5 years, so is there any chance that any of my data will remain anywhere in these components - caches or anything?

 

Thanks,

Rhys

[minibois]

The RAM and CPU only have volatile memory, meaning if you power off either device; all data on it is lost. So there is no data there.

 

The motherboard ... I can think of a couple things where data can be stored and will list the possible issues with that from most important to least important:

1. Windows License: your Windows license (when talking about Windows 8 and newer) is stored on your system, or actually tied to your system. When you connect to the internet, Windows kinda checks if your system is still the same system. While that doesn't mean your license is stored on your board, it does mean your Windows license can be tied to your board. Have you logged into your Microsoft account on the Windows on the system, then logged in with that same account on your new system and confirmed the hardware changes? If so, the Windows license is not tied anymore.

2. Your BIOS: the motherboard has some non-volatile memory, where it stores the BIOS data. Once you reset this, it forgets it all. So just do that and you're done. (or just pop in a new BIOS/CMOS battery).

 

To be honest, I would just check the Windows key thing, toss a new battery in and you're all good.

[RhysMusique]

5 minutes ago, minibois said:

1. Windows License: your Windows license (when talking about Windows 8 and newer) is stored on your system, or actually tied to your system. When you connect to the internet, Windows kinda checks if your system is still the same system. While that doesn't mean your license is stored on your board, it does mean your Windows license can be tied to your board. Have you logged into your Microsoft account on the Windows on the system, then logged in with that same account on your new system and confirmed the hardware changes? If so, the Windows license is not tied anymore.

It's Windows 10 - and when changing over I just disassembled my Z77 System, took the PSU, Storage and GPU, and just started again on my B450-F Motherboard. Used the same SSD to boot from and installed the new drivers. I can't even remember if I even had to reactivate windows.

 

Thanks, 

Rhys