Things to do before replacing motherboard & proccessor?

Inazuma · 29 Dec 2011 at 18:10

Hi all,
Tomorrow I will finally be upgrading to an i7

This means I'll also be changing the motherboard.

I heard that you can pretty much just replace the parts and Windows will just be fine, but I was wondering if you lot could chime in on your own experiences and tell me if there's anything I should do other than the usual backing up of important files.

w3bbo · 29 Dec 2011 at 18:17

Whoever told you that doesn't know what they are talking about.

Changing chipsets can sometimes work with very few issues however it is common practice to re-install a fresh copy of windows for optimum performance and trouble free computing.

setter · 29 Dec 2011 at 18:27

New mobo, fresh install, even when switching to a board with the same chipset. Avoids any compatibility issues. Besides, theres nothing better than a nice fresh nippy windows installation on your new kit.

Dano · 29 Dec 2011 at 18:30

Back your stuff up and re-install, save yourself any grief later on.

Mattus · 29 Dec 2011 at 22:05

Yeah, reinstall. People have been known to get away with it through tricks such as uninstalling all hardware, including system devices, in device manager prior to the change. But with the hassle it's likely to cause, it's a much better idea just to start afresh.

neil_g · 29 Dec 2011 at 23:11

Agree with all of the above, prepare for a reinstall.

Even with a direct same make and model replacement rma albeit of a slightly different revision caused blue screens a plenty

VaderDSL · 29 Dec 2011 at 23:12

Get Windows 7 onto a USB stick, much faster re-install that way

mod1fied · 29 Dec 2011 at 23:37

Switched from an old AMD board to Z68 without reinstalling but my explorer process has started crashing randomly so I would say its a good idea to re-install

Inazuma · 30 Dec 2011 at 10:26

This may be a stupid question, but I suppose after a re-install, programs on my second hardrive will not work either?

cats_five · 30 Dec 2011 at 10:38

Correct. You will have to also reinstall all your programs as their registry entries are missing.

Make sure you have the up-to-date drivers for all the hardware available before you start - the ones on the CD that come with the mobo are not always the latest versions.

Montala · 30 Dec 2011 at 10:46

It might be a good idea to check that your new motherboard has the latest BIOS version installed also.

On some Asus boards you can do this from within the (existing) BIOS itself before you actually install Windows.

I don't know which 'version' of Windows 7 you are using but you can download an 'iso' file with SP1 already integrated (32 bit and 64 bit), but you would obviously still need to have a legal Windows product key.

You can read more about this procedure, and download the appropriate files, here.

gillywibble · 30 Dec 2011 at 10:50

Re-install. Always.

Inazuma · 31 Dec 2011 at 00:37

Thanks, I got it all up and running now

I'm having a problem of inconsistent hard drive speed though. Using HD Speed, before the upgrade I was getting an average and stable 125 Mb/sec. Now it's 95 Mb/sec and jumps a lot between 60 and 110 Mb/sec. Same goes for my secondary hardrive, although not quite as bad.