Changing MB and CPU. Plug and play?

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Philipkrieger

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Jun 1, 2015
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I'm upgrading my cpu from AMD to Intel, which also means a new motherboard switch. My question is wether or not this is as simple as plugging everything in, setting the boot drive in BIOS, and continue on with my day with only a few software updates to worry about.
Or does it require a reinstall of windows and essentially starting fresh with a clean hard drive?

The way my drives are set up (if it matters)
SSD (C: ) boot drive, just has the OS and some monitoring programs
SSD (G: ) game client drive, has steam, origin, etc. and a few games I play often.
HDD (H: ) everything else, documents, downloads, music, videos, and infrequent games.

If I require a clean install, can I just clean drive C: ? Or do I need to clean G: and H: in the case that there's some amd firmware or formatting floating around.

Thanks!
 
Solution
USAFRet
There is no 100% guarantee of plug n play with all new hardware. Anyone that tells you "it always works", simply hasn't done it enough.

It might work, it might not.
You may need to do a full reinstall of the OS. And you won't know until you try.
So prepare for it if does not.

Thats for the operation.

Now...for the licensing/activation.
What OS is this? If Win 10, read and do this before you change any hardware:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-3164428/windows-build-1607-activation.html

If Win 8.1 or 7, all new hardware may require purchasing a whole new OS license. Or sweet talking a human at MS to let you use the same license on new hardware.
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Mar 16, 2013
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There is no 100% guarantee of plug n play with all new hardware. Anyone that tells you "it always works", simply hasn't done it enough.

It might work, it might not.
You may need to do a full reinstall of the OS. And you won't know until you try.
So prepare for it if does not.

Thats for the operation.

Now...for the licensing/activation.
What OS is this? If Win 10, read and do this before you change any hardware:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-3164428/windows-build-1607-activation.html

If Win 8.1 or 7, all new hardware may require purchasing a whole new OS license. Or sweet talking a human at MS to let you use the same license on new hardware.
 
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Philipkrieger

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Jun 1, 2015
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That's a good point that I completely forgot to mention. I'm running Win 10 as my OS.
Thanks for that guide on linking your OS to your MS account. Now if I originally had Win 7 and took advantage of the free Win 10 upgrade last year, I'll still be able to connect link my OS and MS per what is said in the activation post that you wrote, right?

 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Mar 16, 2013
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Yes. A Win 10 that was Upgraded from Win 7 will work exactly the same way.
I did this just a couple weeks ago on my main PC.

Win 7 upgraded to Win 8 upgraded to Win 8.1 Upgraded to Win 10.
Then, change the hardware. Do all that linking to a MS account, and it activates. Took a few days to actually contact the activation server farm, but it worked.

As said, though...this is only for the activation.

Actual operation might work, it might not.
If it doesn't, OS reinstall, and any applications.
 
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