Upgrading a mobo/CPU without reinstalling windows?

[TrigTrig]

Hey guys,

 

I'm starting a decent-paying job in September and was thinking about a CPU upgrade as a little birthday gift to myself.

 

I currently have an ASRock z75 Motherboard on the 1155 socket, with an i3 - 3220 clocked at 3.3GHz.

 

I was thinking about just upgrading to the 1155's best i7 but am kind of stuck. It would cost about $500 to upgrade just my CPU but I can get a newer CPU model and Motherboard for about the same price.

 

If I were to upgrade both parts, is there a way I could hang on to my Windows and not have to fresh install?

[xnoobftw]

If your windows isnt an OEM version then you dont have to do a fresh install

 

Source: I've changed my CPU from a i5 4440 to a i7 4770 and all my PC did was detect that it had a new CPU and went ahead and boot normally!

[shypin]

you could get a i7-6700k (latest) and a motherboard for about $500

 

and no i dont think you can do that without fresh install

especially if you have windows 10, it wont activate if you do that

[Dredgy]

If it's retail Windows, a complete motherboard and CPU swap shouldn't have any negative effects. You may just have to reactivate Windows over the phone.

 

Though you will probably want to format to get rid of all the old chipset drivers and stuff.

[AnonymousGuy]

Windows 7 is usually pretty good about handling mobo / cpu swaps.  Back with XP or 98 you were completely boned.  Just backup your stuff first in case you can't get back in.

[TrigTrig]

I upgraded to Windows 10 already so I'm guessing it's tied to my hardware. That's exactly what I was afraid of.

 

 

If your windows isnt an OEM version then you dont have to do a fresh install

 

Source: I've changed my CPU from a i5 4440 to a i7 4770 and all my PC did was detect that it had a new CPU and went ahead and boot normally!

 

So if I just install the i7 it'll be fine? Or would I need to go find the drivers for my i3?

[techguru]

Hey guys,

 

I'm starting a decent-paying job in September and was thinking about a CPU upgrade as a little birthday gift to myself.

 

I currently have an ASRock z75 Motherboard on the 1155 socket, with an i3 - 3220 clocked at 3.3GHz.

 

I was thinking about just upgrading to the 1155's best i7 but am kind of stuck. It would cost about $500 to upgrade just my CPU but I can get a newer CPU model and Motherboard for about the same price.

 

If I were to upgrade both parts, is there a way I could hang on to my Windows and not have to fresh install?

you have to do a clean install if you change the motherboard

most other hardware you can get away with not 

[techguru]

I would probably wait till skylake stuff is out for purchase tho

 

makes no sense to buy a haswell right now

[EliasNM]

Every other piece of hardware but a motherboard you don't have to do a clean install, if you are swapping motherboards out plan to do a clean install.

[xnoobftw]

I upgraded to Windows 10 already so I'm guessing it's tied to my hardware. That's exactly what I was afraid of.

 

 

 

So if I just install the i7 it'll be fine? Or would I need to go find the drivers for my i3?

If you just change the CPU you'll be fine! Not sure about MOBO tho but you'll probably just have to reactivate your windows key

[TrigTrig]

If you just change the CPU you'll be fine! Not sure about MOBO tho but you'll probably just have to reactivate your windows key

 

Like I said, I got the free Window 10 upgrade. Technically, I don't own a Windows 10 key

[ztmj96]

Huh, something I learnt today. Why is the OS tied to the motherboard?

[EliasNM]

Huh, something I learnt today. Why is the OS tied to the motherboard?

Put it this way, you can't say you have a city with no land and no inhabitants. So the land (motherboard) needs people to function (hardware) and a set of rules/laws (OS), so if you have no land, you can't have the rest. People you can swap out but not land. Then you can say I have a city (PC). There are exception to the rule but its more complicated.

[Rarity]

If you just change the CPU you'll be fine! Not sure about MOBO tho but you'll probably just have to reactivate your windows key

yeah , reactivate windows only , thats what i did (and the driver reinstall/delete etc) 

[ztmj96]

Put it this way, you can't say you have a city with no land and no inhabitants. So the land (motherboard) needs people to function (hardware) and a set of rules/laws (OS), so if you have no land, you can't have the rest. People you can swap out but not land. Then you can say I have a city (PC). There are exception to the rule but its more complicated.

 

Prior to this I thought that the OS was entirely dependent on the storage drive itself, so as long as I plug the same drive into the SATA port, everything would be imported. So what happens if you actually do that? Will the data not be read off the drive? What error would show up?