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Just received my processor.. Could i.....

Percy

Gawd
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Joined
Sep 27, 2002
Messages
874
Hey all.... I just received my i7-2700k from INTEL.... In order to swap out with my current CPU do I need to do a format/clean install of windows? I wouldn't see why not.... but what would be better. Correct me if i am wrong!!

-Thanks in advance.
 
I came from an i5 2500k to and i7 2600k. I did not have too. A few programs where a bit quirky. After the upgrade.
 
you shouldnt have too

motherboards and cpus change over i would. or going from nividia to ATI vice versa.
 
No. I've done tons of swapping CPU and have never had a problem with booting. I believe Windows handles it at such a low level it doesn't matter.
 
I reinstall, ATI to NVIDIA and new mobos. Unless the mobo is the same chipset then...I might try it to see...
 
Hey all.... I just received my i7-2700k from INTEL.... In order to swap out with my current CPU do I need to do a format/clean install of windows? I wouldn't see why not.... but what would be better. Correct me if i am wrong!!

-Thanks in advance.

No reason to format! Pop that bad boy in that socket and maybe do a CMOS and that's about it. I just swapped out my 2500k for my new 2700k from Intel I got a few days ago.

The 2700k is a bad ass MOFO CPU! Expect 10-25% increase in performance. I love it!
 
Make sure you update the BIOS first, to make sure it supports the 2700K clock speeds. No reason, at all, to re-install for that swap. Even a motherboard swap is fine with Win 7.
 
No reason to format! Pop that bad boy in that socket and maybe do a CMOS and that's about it. I just swapped out my 2500k for my new 2700k from Intel I got a few days ago.

The 2700k is a bad ass MOFO CPU! Expect 10-25% increase in performance. I love it!

Over what?
Edit* Sorry see what you meant. I had to read it again.
 
I recently upgraded from E8400 to Q9550 and it worked just fine. Don't think it will be any different for you.
 
I wouldn't bother with a CPU.

On another note, you guys reinstall over a video card? Crazy. I've moved back and forth and never had a single problem.
 
I've swapped MB (Gigabyte P35 board to an Asus P45 to an Asus Z68), CPU (C2D E8400 to an Q9650 to an i7-2700K) hard drives (150GB Raptor to a 120GB Agility 2 to a 240GB Agility 3) and video cards (4870X2 to a GTX480 to a GTX580) without reloading Windows 7 once. I have had zero issues.

You'll be fine.
 
I wouldn't bother with a CPU.

On another note, you guys reinstall over a video card? Crazy. I've moved back and forth and never had a single problem.

Agree with this. No reason to reinstall Windows for just a video card! :)
 
I've swapped MB (Gigabyte P35 board to an Asus P45 to an Asus Z68), CPU (C2D E8400 to an Q9650 to an i7-2700K) hard drives (150GB Raptor to a 120GB Agility 2 to a 240GB Agility 3) and video cards (4870X2 to a GTX480 to a GTX580) without reloading Windows 7 once. I have had zero issues.

You'll be fine.

I love windows 7, It handles driver changes like a fucking CHAMP.

I went two years without reformatting, and only did so because I was too lazy to clean up and reorganize my install myself. (New hard drive, wanted to put programs on it instead of my main)

About to change my motherboard and processor this week ;) We shall see.
 
CPU's between same manufacturer and same motherboard? Never any need to reinstall.
Motherboard swap? XP will need a repair install. Windows 7 will require a few reboots and then a reactivation, and will usually work perfectly.
Motherboard swap between AMD/Nvidia and Intel chipsets? Reinstall. Even windows 7 may have problems since the chipset drivers are so different.
 
Make sure you update the BIOS first, to make sure it supports the 2700K clock speeds. No reason, at all, to re-install for that swap. Even a motherboard swap is fine with Win 7.

What he said. Just make sure you update the BIOS.
 
CPU's between same manufacturer and same motherboard? Never any need to reinstall.
Motherboard swap? XP will need a repair install. Windows 7 will require a few reboots and then a reactivation, and will usually work perfectly.
Motherboard swap between AMD/Nvidia and Intel chipsets? Reinstall. Even windows 7 may have problems since the chipset drivers are so different.

Motherboard swap for me was instant boot, working perfectly right away. Even from AMD to Intel, besides the fact that I had a defective motherboard. nVidia to AMD chipset had no hiccups whatsoever.
 
Worth pointing out - some software ties activations to hardware, and a CPU swap requires re-activation.

This was particularly problematic for me using Photoshop CS5. It only has two activations, and one was on my laptop. I couldn't "de-activate" the license from my old CPU, since the old CPU was no longer in place.

So...had to call into their support. That wasn't awesome.

I'd recommend de-activating your 'activated' software before the swap. iTunes, any Adobe CS* products, etc.
 
CPU's between same manufacturer and same motherboard? Never any need to reinstall.
Motherboard swap? XP will need a repair install. Windows 7 will require a few reboots and then a reactivation, and will usually work perfectly.
Motherboard swap between AMD/Nvidia and Intel chipsets? Reinstall. Even windows 7 may have problems since the chipset drivers are so different.

I've actually have done a swap for a friend from a am2 system to a sandy bridge and windows 7 didn't require a reinstall. Pretty crazy. Vista and up are pretty portable in this respect. The only thing they don't seem to like is switching between ahci and legacy ide mode.
 
In my years of motherboard/CPU changes with Windows (going way back to the days of Windows 3.0...), I've found that the only thing Windows is really temperamental about (i.e., absolutely refuses to boot) is change in disk controller. If I've had an installation that I've had to keep for some reason, and changing the board resulted in a BSOD, I have been able to salvage it by adding a temporary add-in controller (cheap PCI or PCI-e), let Windows detect it, boot up Windows once with the new controller to test, swap boards, boot up on the add-in card to allow Windows to detect the new board's controller and chipset, then remove the add-in card and boot up with the onboard hardware. If a change of video card or other peripheral has been the cause, I have usually been able to hack at it with safe mode or whatever to remove the old driver and then add the new hardware. Never had a situation where a change in JUST a CPU caused a problem (except in NT where you had to upgrade the HAL to support more than one processor!)

Recently upgraded from an MSI P43 chipset board to a Gigabyte Z68 board, it was plug and play as long as I kept it in the same mode (IDE vs. AHCI). Agree with others that Windows 7 is far more foregiving than other Windows versions.
 
I've actually have done a swap for a friend from a am2 system to a sandy bridge and windows 7 didn't require a reinstall. Pretty crazy. Vista and up are pretty portable in this respect. The only thing they don't seem to like is switching between ahci and legacy ide mode.

This is due to the fact that if you install Windows 7 in IDE mode, by default it will disable the AHCI drivers. Therefore, in order to boot, you need to manually enable AHCI drivers before switching to AHCI mode.
 
Heck I have changed boards from with in the same family and never had a problem. Went from a DH67CL up a DZ68BD didnt reinstall and have never had a problem with it.
 
BIOS update, pull 2500K out, put 2700K in, boot. Done!


Gotta love Win 7. I've helped friends and family migrate from older platforms to newer reusing the HDD and have not needed to reinstall Windows even once. Just upgraded my brother's dual PIII-1000 system to an X2 3800+ and had no issues with Windows 7 booting after the hardware changes.

Now where's your god, Mac fans? :p
 
Worth pointing out - some software ties activations to hardware, and a CPU swap requires re-activation.

This was particularly problematic for me using Photoshop CS5. It only has two activations, and one was on my laptop. I couldn't "de-activate" the license from my old CPU, since the old CPU was no longer in place.

So...had to call into their support. That wasn't awesome.

I'd recommend de-activating your 'activated' software before the swap. iTunes, any Adobe CS* products, etc.

That is *only* if you have a non-SLIC BIOS (which, unfortunately, is going to be the case - at present - with BYOPC builds in 1155).

You won't need to de-authorize iTunes - that is tied to your Apple ID (usually your e-mail address), not your hardware. (I'd know, as I use the *same* AppleID for my Hack software, such as iTunes, and the remainder of my Apple software, whether OS X or Windows.) Adobe CS-series products? That truly biteth.
 
You won't need to de-authorize iTunes - that is tied to your Apple ID (usually your e-mail address), not your hardware. (I'd know, as I use the *same* AppleID for my Hack software, such as iTunes, and the remainder of my Apple software, whether OS X or Windows.) Adobe CS-series products? That truly biteth.

Nope, iTunes is tied to hardware, too. I didn't de-authorize it when I did my swap, so when I had to re-activate it, I burned one of my remaining licenses. (This may be only a factor in media that is licensed per-PC. For example, most of iTunes HD movies, but...nothing else, I think?)

Which is stupid of me, as I'd done the same thing earlier in the year - twice. So I used the 'deactivate all PCs' options iTunes provides (that you can only use once a year), but have since burned two more of the activations via hardware swaps. So even though I've only got iTunes, with my account, on 3 PCs...Apple thinks I have used up all of my 5 authorizations.
 
When I upgraded to my sig system (from an Athlon XP system), I didn't reinstall and it ran perfectly and even survived a ghosting over to my 1TB. Crapped out after a while, though and I reformatted. Been running smoothly ever since.
 
I just swapped in a new motherboard, CPU, and RAM. All it took was letting windows crash a couple times while reinstalling drivers at various stages, and the bitch flies.

Even enabled AHCI with no issues.
 
Nope no reason to, and even sometimes on motherboard swaps you might not have to either (as ive heard) some brands will just force windows in updating to the new drivers. But I would suggest doing a format and re-install only if upgrading Mobo's for a fresh clean boot.
 
so what everyone is saying is i can go from a q9550 to a core i7 new mobo and ram and not have to reinstall unless i have a oem OS?
 
so what everyone is saying is i can go from a q9550 to a core i7 new mobo and ram and not have to reinstall unless i have a oem OS?

You will be prompted to reauthorize. Other than that, it'll work fine.
 
Guess I stand corrected. Nice to see windows 7 plays well with hardware changes. I guess windows 7 wipes the HAL completely. I remember people using registry and device manager edits to wipe the HAL back during the win98 days...

The reason I mentioned possibly reinstalling, is because some programs, if installed previously, will cause VERY bizarre things to happen, even on the exact same motherboard, with new hardware. Intel's Thermal Analysis Tool (for those who remember this), which had a stress test mode similar to the old "Burn P6/BurnBX" code, and was designed for the early mobile core 1's and first core 2 mobiles, worked perfectly on the retail core 2 quads, but throw a Yorkfield into that system, and your CPU would be throttled to 400 mhz (even before the desktop appears), even though no diagnostic programs would detect anything (but XP would show the cpu speed to be 500 mhz'ish). AND THIS IS WITHOUT TAT EVEN RUNNING--just having the DRIVER installed was enough to do this. Uninstall TAT=CPU is back to full speed.
 
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