Do I need to do a fresh install?

[2ez]

So I'm replacing my everything except my drives . Should I do a fresh install ? Someone told me these days it doesn't matter . I'm kinda nervous because I've never done it . I mean when I built my first PC I made a boot drive obviously but I don't want to have to unless absolutely necessary .

[Skipple]

Yes. Best practice is to format and re-install windows.

[SImoHayha]

IT depends. If you're going from AMD CPU to intel CPU you'll 100% need a fresh install or "refreshed install"  IF you're upgrading from one Intel CPU to another you'll be fine.

just make sure to uninstall teh previous GPU drivers using DDU and reinstall the new drivers for the GPU.

[Jon-Slow]

It's always a good idea to do that, specially when you're buying many new parts. The best thing to do is to format the whole drive and install a fresh Windows from a USB.

[Inception9269]

59 minutes ago, 2ez said:

So I'm replacing my everything except my drives . Should I do a fresh install ? Someone told me these days it doesn't matter . I'm kinda nervous because I've never done it . I mean when I built my first PC I made a boot drive obviously but I don't want to have to unless absolutely necessary .

 

48 minutes ago, Ramamataz said:

IT depends. If you're going from AMD CPU to intel CPU you'll 100% need a fresh install or "refreshed install"  IF you're upgrading from one Intel CPU to another you'll be fine.

just make sure to uninstall teh previous GPU drivers using DDU and reinstall the new drivers for the GPU.

Pretty much this.

 

If you're going from AMD to AMD or Intel to Intel for CPUs you're fine, if not then it's a good idea to do a clean install. As for GPUs if you're going from AMD to Nvidia or the other way around you'll want to remove previous drivers. Ran into some issues with that last year.