Switching Motherboard

[Adam2004]

Hello, my name is Adam and I have a pretty bad computer that I would like to beef up. I would like to get my system to run games like theHunter: Call of the Wild or Kerbal Space Program at medium settings with 60fps. I could get the FX 8350 (I currently have a FX 4300) and maybe keep the same motherboard or switch from AM3+ to AM4 for the Ryzen 5 series for a little more future proof. I would like to know what all I have to do and what I should do for either of these options. I am going to get a GTX 1050 or 1050ti for the GPU this build. I would not have the money to get a copy of Windows 10 but I do have a reinstallation disc for it I believe. Thank you for your time.

[sambarr]

Depends on your budget. AM4 is the way to go imho, GPU depends on how much money you have left after buying motherboard+cpu+memory.

 

The 8350 might be functional, but it's nowhere as efficient (125 watts vs 65 watts) or future-proof as a 1600. Wait for 2nd gen Ryzen though, if you can.

[12chrismi]

Really depends how much you can/want to spend. Ryzen is pretty great and will keep you up for years, and a 1050 (Ti) is great for medium/high 1080p gaming.

[Adam2004]

 

3 hours ago, sambarr said:

Depends on your budget. AM4 is the way to go imho, GPU depends on how much money you have left after buying motherboard+cpu+memory.

 

The 8350 might be functional, but it's nowhere as efficient (125 watts vs 65 watts) or future-proof as a 1600. Wait for 2nd gen Ryzen though, if you can.

Thank you for the advice but that still did not answer my question. Will I need to get a re-installation of windows to switch motherboard or will it be okay with a different one?

[sambarr]

1 hour ago, Adam2004 said:

 

Thank you for the advice but that still did not answer my question. Will I need to get a re-installation of windows to switch motherboard or will it be okay with a different one?

No, you can keep your existing windows installation and switch motherboards, or any other part for that matter. Windows 10 will survive hardware changes.

[Adam2004]

17 hours ago, sambarr said:

No, you can keep your existing windows installation and switch motherboards, or any other part for that matter. Windows 10 will survive hardware changes.

Do I have to do anything special or just switch the motherboard and boot through the drive?

[sambarr]

Basically there's two ways to boot nowadays, UEFI and what's called Legacy. If your new motherboard comes from the factory with a "UEFI only" setting in the bios and your drive is not formatted as GPT, it won't boot.

 

However, this is just a setting that you can change in the BIOS (from "UEFI" boot to "Legacy" boot, usually), so in the eventuality that your windows does not boot at all, you'll have to go into the BIOS and change this setting.

 

It depends on the motherboard. It's nothing to worry about though, because it can be changed easily, and the rest will be butter-smooth.

[ouroesa]

Windows is usually fine when changing motherboards but I tend to re-install a fresh copy (or do a reset on windows) of Windows as the old and new drivers can sometimes cause weird issues that are a pain in the ass to diagnose. 

[Adam2004]

Is there a place or way I can get a fresh copy of Windows for free? Thank you for your help!

[ouroesa]

6 hours ago, Adam2004 said:

Is there a place or way I can get a fresh copy of Windows for free? Thank you for your help!

Yup, follow the below link. Download and install the utility and it will guide you through the process

 

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10