Do i need to reinstall windows if I switch out motherboards?

[JoeAceJR]

I currently have a gigabyte aorus pro wifi x570-i motherboard, I want to put my ryzen 9 3900x into a larger case,  so naturally I would get a motherboard to fit the larger case. My 2 preferred options are  the gigabyte x570 ultra and the x570 aorus pro wifi. Do I need to reinstall windows  when switching motherboards,or could I simply put  both of my nvme SSD's  into the motherboard no problem? Or if  I do reinstall windows, I do have some important programs in the main drive,  would I simply need to move  them to my D drive before reinstalling windows, or could  I simply create an image of the C drive, put it somewhere, then when I reinstall windows,  I simply load the image on my C drive? Yes, the C drive is where Windows is and the D  drive  is where some programs are. The main drive is a 1tb corsair mp500 and the D drive is a 2tb adata sx 8200.

[SavageNeo]

1 minute ago, JoeAceJR said:

wifi x570-i motherboard,

it will fit on a larger case.

[PiberiusWilde]

5 minutes ago, JoeAceJR said:

Do I need to reinstall windows  when switching motherboards,

Ehh..... No! Just make sure in the bios which ssd's is the boot drive and you should be honky dory.

[TetraSky]

Officially, no. Especially not on the same chipset. Windows should fix itself up.

 

That said, personally, I would still do it if I had the time. Just to make sure Windows doesn't have an excuse to bluescreen randomly because it decided to f*ck itself over somehow after the transfer. But it's not necessary in this case since it's the same chipset and thus, has waaaay less chances of screwing up than if you went from AMD to Intel or something.

You will probably lose your Windows license though. So keep that in mind as well.

 

16 minutes ago, JoeAceJR said:

Or if  I do reinstall windows, I do have some important programs in the main drive,  would I simply need to move  them to my D drive before reinstalling windows, or could  I simply create an image of the C drive, put it somewhere, then when I reinstall windows,  I simply load the image on my C drive? Yes, the C drive is where Windows is and the D  drive  is where some programs are.

Softwares installed on D drive will still need to be reinstalled. The registry is kept on C. You can't just "move" them, unless they are "portable" apps that 100% run from their own folder.

[airborne spoon]

you'll be fine its just a 1 for 1 swap as long as you boot to the same drive the OS shouldn't notice any changes were made.

[EspinalAndres]

I changed CPU and board without reinstalling windows: from i5 8400 and H310 to Z490 and i7 10700k without any problems.

I would reinstall but I have no time now.

 

I dont think you need to change your motherboard, just check if the new case supports your current format: micro atx, mini or atx.

[JoeAceJR]

28 minutes ago, EspinalAndres said:

I changed CPU and board without reinstalling windows: from i5 8400 and H310 to Z490 and i7 10700k without any problems.

I would reinstall but I have no time now.

 

I dont think you need to change your motherboard, just check if the new case supports your current format: micro atx, mini or atx.

Thats actually a  good idea to just put the motherboard in the new case, when I upgrade to intel or a higher end AMD CPU in like 5 to 10 years anyway, I will probably switch motherboards, get a larger SSD, etc. I probably will just do a case, cooler, and PSU swap.