Is switching motherboards straightforward?

[lerodemmy]

I’m thinking about switching from the MSI MPG Z590 Gaming Carbon to the Asus ROG Maximus XIII Hero.  When I ask if the process is straightforward, I’m wondering if there’s anything I need to do beyond the obvious.

 

To me, the obvious is removing all of the hardware and connections from the old board and installing them on the new one, and reconfiguring the BIOS settings.

 

Can the M.2 SSD, for example, just be removed from the old board and added to the new without any issues or formatting or tinkering?  Do I have to reinstall drivers for the GPU and WiFi and such?

[Slottr]

You really should reinstall windows with the new motherboard. Same note as drivers, but this just ensures EVERYTHING from your old board is gone.

 

Windows does do an *ok* job with it, but I'm not 100% confident

[Letgomyleghoe]

pretty much everything you described, sometimes windows has errors, but you should be fine, if windows decides it wants to throw a fit slap your old motherboard back in, backup what you need on another drive or in the cloud then reinstall.

[Mister Woof]

You might have problems with windows key; usually it's tied to the motherboard

[lerodemmy]

1 minute ago, Mister Woof said:

You might have problems with windows key; usually it's tied to the motherboard

How do you like that Elite Capellix?  I picked this Phanteks Glacier One because the fans daisy chain, but I’m not overly enthralled by the look of the pump cover.  Also, the pump makes a constant buzzing sound, which isn’t very loud, but I’m always aware of it.

 

The Phanteks cooler does keep my 11900K around 28c most of the time, which seems very good to me, but maybe it’s just average?  The Corsair AIO I have in my other PC usually has my 9900KF in the low 40s.  Maybe it needs new thermal paste.

[Mister Woof]

19 minutes ago, lerodemmy said:

How do you like that Elite Capellix?  I picked this Phanteks Glacier One because the fans daisy chain, but I’m not overly enthralled by the look of the pump cover.  Also, the pump makes a constant buzzing sound, which isn’t very loud, but I’m always aware of it.

 

The Phanteks cooler does keep my 11900K around 28c most of the time, which seems very good to me, but maybe it’s just average?  The Corsair AIO I have in my other PC usually has my 9900KF in the low 40s.  Maybe it needs new thermal paste.

I like it enough. Can't say I would go out of my way to get it - I had some Best Buy credit from a returned EVGA 360 CLC (which was terrible) and used it on the cooler. Performance and build quality is good; however it is overpriced IMO and I perhaps would not have chosen it on its own. It does however come with the commander RGB hub, which is added cost so if you were to buy that on its own, the price is okay total. iCUE software is leagues ahead of the EVGA Flow Control software. Also the fans are much better than the EVGA fans, which if you read that corsair fan's aren't really considered great, then it shows just how bad the EVGA fans were.

 

Right now at idle with 1.37ish volt, it is around 25-27c. Gaming load maybe mid 50s low 60s. Stress test like RealBench can get into around high 70s low 80s after an hour, but that is with some lower vdroop voltage of around 1.28v. I don't know if the 10 core chip can be adequately cooled on actual voltage of higher than 1.3-1.35v in full stress without some crazy cooling setups. Fan noise isn't bad as I have set it to a max of around 60% until 90c. The pump does make a humming sound, but so did the EVGA. I don't think you can avoid that pump sound completely with an AIO. I have my case fans at around 50% all the time though, so it helps drown it out a bit. This is to help with GPU cooling.

 

If going by looks alone I would have chosen the Deepcool Castle 360EX RGB.

 

Performance alone, probably the Arctic Liquid Freezer II 360.

 

[lerodemmy]

10 minutes ago, Mister Woof said:

I like it enough. Can't say I would go out of my way to get it - I had some Best Buy credit from a returned EVGA 360 CLC (which was terrible) and used it on the cooler. Performance and build quality is good; however it is overpriced IMO and I perhaps would not have chosen it on its own. It does however come with the commander RGB hub, which is added cost so if you were to buy that on its own, the price is okay total. iCUE software is leagues ahead of the EVGA Flow Control software. Also the fans are much better than the EVGA fans, which if you read that corsair fan's aren't really considered great, then it shows just how bad the EVGA fans were.

 

Right now at idle with 1.37ish volt, it is around 25-27c. Gaming load maybe mid 50s low 60s. Stress test like RealBench can get into around high 70s low 80s after an hour, but that is with some lower vdroop voltage of around 1.28v. I don't know if the 10 core chip can be adequately cooled on actual voltage of higher than 1.3-1.35v in full stress without some crazy cooling setups. Fan noise isn't bad as I have set it to a max of around 60% until 90c. The pump does make a humming sound, but so did the EVGA. I don't think you can avoid that pump sound completely with an AIO. I have my case fans at around 50% all the time though, so it helps drown it out a bit. This is to help with GPU cooling.

 

If going by looks alone I would have chosen the Deepcool Castle 360EX RGB.

 

Performance alone, probably the Arctic Liquid Freezer II 360.

 

Thanks.  Seems like if I’m choosing between Phanteks and Corsair, it’s more a matter of aesthetic preference, as the performance and noise differences sound negligible.

 

Also, when you said the Windows key is usually tied to the MB, that’s not a problem, right?  Like I could just reinstall Windows on the new board and enter the same key?

[Mister Woof]

3 minutes ago, lerodemmy said:

Thanks.  Seems like if I’m choosing between Phanteks and Corsair, it’s more a matter of aesthetic preference, as the performance and noise differences sound negligible.

 

Also, when you said the Windows key is usually tied to the MB, that’s not a problem, right?  Like I could just reinstall Windows on the new board and enter the same key?

If you have an OEM key it won't work as it only works for one install to one system. Windows itself will still work but it won't activate.

 

If you have a retail key it should still work. If you tied your retail key to a microsoft account, it should still work also when you log in to microsoft account.

[Guest]

You don't need to reinstall windows to hot swap.

Just remove the chipset drivers and shut down. 

Hot swap the drive to the new board post up.

Install your new chipset drivers and you should be good to go.

[Mister Woof]

32 minutes ago, ShrimpBrime said:

You don't need to reinstall windows to hot swap.

Just remove the chipset drivers and shut down. 

Hot swap the drive to the new board post up.

Install your new chipset drivers and you should be good to go.

Windows might still detect the hardware change and deactivate, though.

[Guest]

7 hours ago, Mister Woof said:

Windows might still detect the hardware change and deactivate, though.

I've not had any problems with deactivation, but I think mine is the Pro version. Not sure if that makes a difference.

[dilpickle]

I've swapped many mobos over the years and Windows always boots. One time I even moved over a 3 drive RAID 0 array and it worked.

 

But I always re-install Windows anyway. It's a good practice.

[lerodemmy]

All right, I'm ready to swap boards from MSI to Asus.  I just want to make sure of a few things before doing so:

 

Should I uninstall the chipset drivers?  How do I do that?

Should I uninstall the graphics card drivers?  How do I do that?

Should I format the SSD?

Is there anything specific I need to do to untie the Windows key from the motherboard?  I have the full retail version of Windows, the one that includes the USB drive.

Do I need to reset the BIOS and/or clear the CMOS?

[Mister Woof]

29 minutes ago, lerodemmy said:

All right, I'm ready to swap boards from MSI to Asus.  I just want to make sure of a few things before doing so:

 

Should I uninstall the chipset drivers?  How do I do that?

Should I uninstall the graphics card drivers?  How do I do that?

Should I format the SSD?

Is there anything specific I need to do to untie the Windows key from the motherboard?  I have the full retail version of Windows, the one that includes the USB drive.

Do I need to reset the BIOS and/or clear the CMOS?

1. I would. Go to Apps and Features and look for the motherboard drivers to uninstall. Do it immediately before the swap without restarting again, or windows might try to install them again on next boot.

 

2. If the GPU is same, I wouldn't bother.

 

3. If it's the secondary storage, no. If it's your primary storage, then that would be the same as reinstalling Windows, which doesn't seem to be your goal. Although I would just reinstall Windows myself.

 

4. If you don't reinstall windows and just go in, it may or may not decide to deactivate. If it does, and it is indeed a full retail windows key (not an OEM version), you should be able to reactivate it with the same key.

 

5. It will be the new motherboard, so you'll have to set up all your stuff again anyway, such as memory speeds, any OCs, and your boot order, etc.

[lerodemmy]

13 minutes ago, Mister Woof said:

3. If it's the secondary storage, no. If it's your primary storage, then that would be the same as reinstalling Windows, which doesn't seem to be your goal. Although I would just reinstall Windows myself.

 

4. If you don't reinstall windows and just go in, it may or may not decide to deactivate. If it does, and it is indeed a full retail windows key (not an OEM version), you should be able to reactivate it with the same key.

Reinstalling Windows is my plan.

 

13 minutes ago, Mister Woof said:

5. It will be the new motherboard, so you'll have to set up all your stuff again anyway, such as memory speeds, any OCs, and your boot order, etc.

I meant should I reset the BIOS/clear the CMOS on the old board, but I'm guessing the answer is no.  The old board is getting returned, for the record.

 

Thank you for the detailed answers.

Edited April 21, 2021 by lerodemmy
offering my thanks

[Mister Woof]

Just now, lerodemmy said:

Reinstalling Windows is my plan.

 

I meant should I reset the BIOS/clear the CMOS on the old board, but I'm guessing the answer is no.  The old board is getting returned, for the record.

Then I wouldn't bother uninstalling anything.

 

Presuming you have nothing at all on the boot drive you wish to preserve (no intentional extra partitions, etc), then I would:

 

1. only plug in the installation drive (do not connect secondary storage) during windows install

2. boot from the windows usb

3. delete all the partitions and format.

4. create any partitions (if you want to, that is) on the drive

5. select the desired partition to install

6. when it's done, plug your secondary drives back in

7. download and install the relevant drivers for your motherboard, video, etc.

8. put in your windows key. if it's a full retail version, it should just work. If not, you may have to call the phone number to get it to work, but if it's an oem one, they might not let you. But you could always try, just say your motherboard failed and you got a new one.

[lerodemmy]

8 minutes ago, Mister Woof said:

Then I wouldn't bother uninstalling anything.

 

Presuming you have nothing at all on the boot drive you wish to preserve (no intentional extra partitions, etc), then I would:

 

1. only plug in the installation drive (do not connect secondary storage) during windows install

2. boot from the windows usb

3. delete all the partitions and format.

4. create any partitions (if you want to, that is) on the drive

5. select the desired partition to install

6. when it's done, plug your secondary drives back in

7. download and install the relevant drivers for your motherboard, video, etc.

8. put in your windows key. if it's a full retail version, it should just work. If not, you may have to call the phone number to get it to work, but if it's an oem one, they might not let you. But you could always try, just say your motherboard failed and you got a new one.

Thank you!

[Motleyguts]

On 4/17/2021 at 6:53 AM, ShrimpBrime said:

I've not had any problems with deactivation, but I think mine is the Pro version. Not sure if that makes a difference.

I swapped from intel board to amd board and just restored a full system image backup to the new drive. Fired right up. Win10 Home OEM deactivated, and I just clicked a prompt to let it know I swapped hardware. It immediately activated without a hitch. Now, I imagine it wouldn't let me do this everyday though

 

Sometime down the road I do plan to do a clean install, but I also wanted to know how smooth this process would be and I got my answer.