Changing Motherboard in PC

shootersam · 9 Jul 2014 at 16:48

Hey guys,

Just bought a new mobo, Gigabyte Z77N-wifi (mini ITX board), which will be replacing my Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3 Intel Z68 mobo. Everything else is staying the same, processor, RAM, hard drive and graphics card. I was wondering if I'll need to do a full reinstall of windows, or if a straight swap would work. I presume a full reinstall will be in order, but thought I would check.

Cheers

dazza13 · 9 Jul 2014 at 16:52

It depends on your OS win 7 and 8 are pretty good at sorting them selves out with a MB swap, i have done it in the past going from amd to intel both boards where gigabyte as well and it worked flawlessly.

Obviously a rebuild is the preferred method as helps to reduce any issues further down the line, but if like me at the time you didn't have the time for a rebuild and re-install of all the software necessary then a swap will work.

One thing you can do is to try and pre-load drivers of the new MB.

shootersam · 9 Jul 2014 at 16:55

Thanks, it's windows 7, so I'll give it a go and see what happens.

Akagi · 9 Jul 2014 at 17:10

It will most likely be fine.

Idleman · 9 Jul 2014 at 18:03

Just update your mobo chipset and drivers.

mcleish · 9 Jul 2014 at 19:59

Me personally would do a full reinstall. But its quite easy for me to do that as I have a SSD dedicated to windows.

DaleTheWhale · 10 Jul 2014 at 15:11

You'll need to re-activate windows by a automated call.

Akagi · 10 Jul 2014 at 15:14

ThaReaperGuy said:
You'll need to re-activate windows by a automated call.

I've never had to do this when changing a motherboard though, which is odd.

bledd · 10 Jul 2014 at 16:27

Backup first.

Of course, you already have a backup...