Upgrading mobo/cpu with win 7 (upgraded from vista)

[Au_equus]

The windows 7 Home premium 64-bit currently installed is upgraded from vista. The upgrade key and disk are available as well as in the HD. The current goal is to upgrade from an Q8300 to a i5-2500K, with the appropriate mobo (asus P8P67 M-Pro) and ram (8gb ddr3 g.skill 1333), what are the necessary steps/advice when doing so w/o purchasing a new OS?

 

[Emerald]

you can try just switching out the hardware; however, you might run into driver incompatibility issues which might show up as BSOD or your computer freezing.

best practice is to back up your data, reformat the hard drive, and start with a clean install.

 

[Au_equus]

Best answer selected by au_equus.