Few things I do not understand.

Radec

Radec

Radec

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Joined
17 Feb 2014
Posts
1,235
I5 3570k
Gb Z77-D3H
Radeon 7870 x-edition

Bought my PC a while ago, and these were the parts installed.
Still learning about hardware, so I don't know a huge amount about components.
But I was wondering about when It comes to upgrading; I have some questions I wouldn't be too sure about, some help would be appreciated.

Thanks :p

  1. As far as I can tell, my CPU is only compatible with that particular MOBO. Would I not be able to recycle my CPU with a new MOBO in the future? As I have wanted to go to a m-atx ot m-itx build.
  2. How many times can I use my win7 OS? If I were to upgrade my PC, am I able to install Win7 with my disc & activate it legitamatley?
  3. With smaller m atx or m itx mobo's, other than size and amount of exp slots. Is there any real difference in performance?
 
1. Your CPU is compatible with any socket 1155 motherboard.
2. If it is a retail edition, then as many times as you like. If it's OEM then technically you can only install it the once.
3. Those are the basic differences, there can also be differences in how many volts it can supply to the CPU or RAM for overclocking. I have never actually had an ATX motherboard only M-ATX or M-ITX but I don't game which is where I believe most of the differences may come.
 
If you bought a retail version of windows 7 you can reinstall it as many times as you want on different hardware, obviously you can only have one activated code at a time.

If it's an OEM version you can reinstall windows while using the same hardware but if you change your motherboard then you will need a new key (OEM keys are linked to motherboards).

There isn't much difference between motherboards, maybe If you are really pushing clocks more power phases on larger mobos will help.
 
I see.
I have a OEM copy, have re installed windows a few times.

So is it as simple as just matching sockets, to know if a Mobo & CPU will work?
 
To be safe, if you stick to a Z77 chipset board you will be fine. Not all of the other chipsets were provided with bios updates to run Ivybridge cpu's (your's is a Ivybridge). The Z77 chipset launched alongside Ivybridge.
 
There might be an issue with bios not recognising the chip but it's unlikly seeing how long the sockets been out. I would have thought all the old revisions were sold by now.
 
Okay, thanks for the replies :)
I'll hang on to my current system for now. It's not giving me trouble, I just like the smaller boards.
 
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