So I decided that my Intel Duo Core cpu was WAY long in the tooth so I took the plunge and ordered my new stuff from Newegg today.

I got,

1 ASRock P67 EXTREME4 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

1 Intel Core i7-2600 Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I72600

1 Kingston HyperX T1 Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model KHX1600C9D3T1K2/8GX


Now my only worry is Windows. In theory, I shouldn't need to reinstall Windows correct? I do expect to have to activate it again though since I'm changing so much hardware at one time.

Any motherboard change normally leads to a Windows 7 reinstall -- due to instability. There are exceptions to every rule. But, I no longer even try to get by without a Windows reinstall (on a wiped clean hard drive) -- because I tried so many times and failed to obtain a stable system.

I find that nearly every (non-Steam) game will still work without a reinstall -- and, for me, reinstalling all the games would be the main time consumer. I keep my games on a separate hard drive; so, they are not affected by the reinstall (do backup and replace the savegame folders which ARE on the C: drive normally).

Steam lets one backup all the Steam installs on a separate hard drive and reinstall later. One can also have Steam install its games on a hard drive other than C:. But, I never had enough Steam games to worry about the time to reinstall them.

Just my opinions and experience FWIW

Thanks for the info Allen and I really hope I can get away without having to reinstall Windows because I DO have a lot of Steam games and I only have one hard drive.

Good choices! What are you using for a graphics card?

With Steam games you can redownload... But it takes forever! No way to back all that up onto DVDs or a portable hard drive?

I've had Steam on my D: drive since I got it in 2004 with HL2. I just had to rename the folder, reinstall Steam, and then move the gaming-related folders into it when I upgraded from XP to 7.

However, I also have an old DOS copy of Ghost on a bootable CD I use.



The Jedi Master

If your current motherboard is an ASRock, then you have better chances of avoiding re-install. Otherwise, the difference in the HAL portion of the motherboard drivers might just make it very improbable.

But even if you get a BSOD at boot, you can always try a repair install of Windows 7. Sometimes that work.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html

Worst case, you have to install anyway, so it's worth it to try all options.

Newegg has been selling 1TB hard drives for $50 (on sale) lately. A second HD is something to consider in a complete system with such excellent components. One can use the "image" program in Windows 7 to create an entire image of the entire OS and all the games, etc. -- for easy recovery in case of disaster.

Here's a page with a couple low cost 1TB to 2TB drives (the kind I buy -- low cost on sale ).

Newegg Hard Drives

Hmmmm. Every time I click that link, it gives a different assortment of drives. Anyhow, these are examples not recommendations, per se. If one does not like what one sees, refresh the page and see some other options.

I have an ATI 5850 and nope, I don't have an external hard drive. However, backing up stuff onto dvd is a possible option.

@ Allen - I'll definitely look into those HD specials.

@ Bib4Tuna - My current mobo is a Gigabyte.

Unfortunately, it wont be likely that you can move your Windows 7 install over to a new motherboard and remain stable. Windows 7 kernel must change its communication timings depending upon the board logic (the circuit layout), and it is not intelligent enough to do this with semi-autonomous algorithms. You can try though; remove any motherboard and storage drivers from your install now. Make a clone to hard drive. Restore that clone over the new motherboard and install the drivers specific to that board. Dont get upset if it doesnt work, ... it rarely does.

I concur. You will be doing a reinstall otherwise major instability will occur. Start getting your backups ready....
A couple weeks ago I had to do a motherboard swap for a client & and his was rev 1.0 mobo and the replacement was a 2.1 and of course Win7 did not play nice. I had already did a backup on all the important stuff but it just adds an extra step.


SlackAdjuster

Just finished my upgrade and i went from asus to asus and still had to reinstall couldnt get my os to stop BSODing. I have my steam folder on a second drive I just installed steam into the same folder again and it works just fine.

Ars has an article online for upgrading a motherboard without reinstalling windows:
http://arstechnica.com/hardware/news/200...ing-windows.ars

Your should do the dance just because it's not worth the effort in troubleshooting all the problems you are going to bring about. Unless you really like to troubleshoot a lot. Beside the fact that you bring along all the inconsistencies from your old install to a new build. I can't imagine the fun you are going to have trying to get that Core Duo install to run on a Sandy Bridge since they are so different. Kind of like changing the engine but draining the old oil from the old engine and using it again. It will make sense to you if you should go with the old install idea.

I know, I know, some guys are going to come on here and say no problem, I've done it again and again. I would be interested to s see how many hours you spend troubleshooting vs. just doing a clean install.

An immense thanks for all of the advice guys. I think right now I'm leaning towards doing a clean install of Windows 7 and will do a backup of my important data like my Steam folder and miscellaneous files.

When I do a new build, I always did fire up my old HDD and OS on the new hardware and try to run all my games, just to see how badly things were broken. Then I'd go for a new OS install.

I saw some guy on a newsgroup say that he'd had luck with moving Windows to new hardware by going into device manager and deleting everything there, then shut down. Then boot the OS on the new hardware and it would detect everything fresh. Since I'd be trashing everything on the drive for a fresh OS install anyway, next time I upgrade I might fool with that and see how it goes.

Good luck with the build Panzer!

FWIW I went from a Gigabyte board w/C2D and DDR2 to an Asrock w/SNB i7 and DDR3 back in January and all I had to do was uninstall the video drivers first and reinstall them after the swap.

No instablities.
No reinstalls of anything but video drivers.
No worries.


I think the entire procedure took a big 45 mins including installing the latest Intel chipset drivers and uninstalling the video drivers before shutting down the old system, swapping parts, booting in and letting most drivers autoinstall except for things like USB3 that were new, and reinstalling the video drivers.

In short, you have nothing to lose. Make the backups and proceed as if you will have to begin from scratch, but then try it without doing so. In a day or two you'll know if the system is stable or not, and if it's not then you go ahead and reinstall.

There's really no point in spending several hours redoing everything if it's unnecessary. Find out if it is first.



The Jedi Master

I upgraded my Nvidia 680i Dual core E6850 to an Asrock Fatality Z68 Gen 3 i7-2600K 8 GB DDR3. Booted to BIOS, made sure all the settings for installed hardware was the same, rebooted to Win7-64. Win7 installed all the MB drivers, except those needed for special MB features (LAN, onboard sound, USB 3 etc.)Rebooted, and installed drivers from MB CD. Took about 30 mins actual time for windows to do its thing. All games and programs run perfectly....but muuuuuch faster!!! Used the following link as guide:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/200827/upgrade_your_motherboard_the_easy_way.html

Wheel