Steps needed to change motherboards?

[damonkashu]

I am thinking of changing motherboards and I am wondering what steps need to be taken to ensure a successful transition.

When I transfer the CPU and cooler, do I need to clean and reapply thermal paste?
Do I need to worry about it being able to boot up? (currently have windows 7 installed on an SSD, it shouldn't matter what motherboard I use, right?)
I am currently using DDR3 1333 RAM so I will be looking for another board that is compatible with this them.

Any other things I need to worry about?

 

[JKatwyopc]

"When I transfer the CPU and cooler, do I need to clean and reapply thermal paste?" Yes you will have to reapply the thermal paste. This is because it is not possible to remove the CPU form the old mobo with out separating the cooler for the CPU. It's also not a good idea to reuse the same paste because it is possible to introduce air pockets which can cause poor cooling.

"Do I need to worry about it being able to boot up? (currently have windows 7 installed on an SSD, it shouldn't matter what motherboard I use, right?)" What Motherboard you use has a major impact on whether or not the computer boots. The only reliable way to use the same boot disk without reinstalling windows is to use the exact same make and model of motherboard. Otherwise all of the motherboard drivers will be different and it probably won't boot. Plan on doing a clean install of windows after installing the new motherboard.

"I am currently using DDR3 1333 RAM so I will be looking for another board that is compatible with this them." This should be okay because most current mobos support DDR3 1333 RAM.

"Any other things I need to worry about? " Make a system backup before you do any rebuilding to be sure you don't lose any thing important. You will not need a system image because the mobo will be different.

Can you post your system specs (esp. the mobo, CPU, RAM, and Video card) so that we can get a better idea of what to reccomend?

 

[damonkashu]

Motherboard: Gigabyte Intel Z68 ATX DDR3 2133 LGA 1155 Motherboard GA-Z68A-D3H-B3
CPU: Intel i5 2500K
video card: ASUS ENGTX560 TI DCII TOP/2DI/1GD5 GeForce GTX 560 Ti
RAM: Kingston Technology HyperX Blu 8GB 1333MHz DDR3 Non-ECC CL9 DIMM (Kit of 2) KHX1333C9D3B1K2/8G

 

[damonkashu]

I was thinking of getting this replacement motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131773

 

[JKatwyopc]

That should all work together just fine. Is that the same mobo that you used when you installed windows on the SSD?

 

[JKatwyopc]

Ooop, Looks like we had a little overlap there.

Hmm, the link points to this:
ASUS P8Z68-V LE LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

It might be able to boot since the chipset is the same but I would be prepared to do a clean install of windows anyway. Either way you're still going to have to install the drivers for the new board from the motherboard support CD whether you have to reinstall windows or not.

You can try to uninstall all of the drivers for the old motherboard before you replace it with the new one. Then shut down, replace the mobo, and then install the drivers from the new boards motherboard support CD. I can't promise you that it will work though.