Switch from AMD to Intel, do I need to reinstall windows?

motherpuncher

motherpuncher

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 27, 2013
Messages
257
In a few days my new setup will be here, and as the title states I'm moving from an AMD system to Intel. I was wondering if it is possible to just install the new hardware and install the proper drivers for it, without having to reinstall windows, as I wasn't really wanting to do that. the only other time I changed motherboards was going from a 790fx to 990fx AMD chipset and everything worked fine, so I'm just not sure about the switch over to Intel.
Thanks
 
A google search would have yielded tons of results.
 
Tsumi said:
A google search would have yielded tons of results.
Click to expand...

so much for being a part of a new forum, thanks for the reply. A google search usually helps with all my problems, but you never know when a new thread can yield some very interesting info that might not be so easy to find.
 
With Windows 7/8 you could probably get away with it. That being said there's oh so many things that could go wrong.

If it were me, I wouldn't think twice about reinstalling just to avoid potential headaches in the future.
 
OP you could probably make it work if it's a newer version of windows but a 7 install on modern hardware probably isn't going to take any longer than troubleshooting and would likely yield better results regardless.
 
Yeah I'm on windows 7, and your probably right to just reinstall to avoid potential problems and even more of a headache. Like I said my only other previous switch was painless, just wasn't sure on the switching brands completely. I've been without my rig for over two weeks now and was really just hoping I could get away with being lazy about it! I'm really getting antsy because three days before my motherboard died I got a 7970, and now switching to Intel, it's kind of exciting.
 
This question is asked probably at least once a month on this forum.

But if you really want to know, I went from nVidia (NF980) to AMD (790X) to AMD (890FX) to Intel (X58) all on the same installation spanning 3 years. No slowdowns whatsoever until I got a virus while on the x58 platform.
 
I am fully confident if you swap on windows 7 everything will work perfectly. You have nothing to lose trying this. However, at some point for peace of mind I personally would re-install.
 
I just switched from AMD to an Intel system about a month ago. I did not do a clean install but I did delete all the AMD drivers just to be sure I had no weird conflicts.
 
motherpuncher said:
In a few days my new setup will be here, and as the title states I'm moving from an AMD system to Intel. I was wondering if it is possible to just install the new hardware and install the proper drivers for it, without having to reinstall windows, as I wasn't really wanting to do that. the only other time I changed motherboards was going from a 790fx to 990fx AMD chipset and everything worked fine, so I'm just not sure about the switch over to Intel.
Thanks
Click to expand...

Dont be lazy, reinstall. It will save you headaches down the road....like "why is my usb 3.0 slower then a floppy drive"
 
Tsumi said:
This question is asked probably at least once a month on this forum.

But if you really want to know, I went from nVidia (NF980) to AMD (790X) to AMD (890FX) to Intel (X58) all on the same installation spanning 3 years. No slowdowns whatsoever until I got a virus while on the x58 platform.
Click to expand...
Should've stayed with the fx:p

ZodaEX said:
Make sure the floppy drive supports USB 3.0
Click to expand...
This:D duh!

Just Reinstall.
 
As others have said, best to start out fresh. I also recently jumped ship from amd and bought an i7 upgrade and a gigabyte z77x ud5 mobo.

I shelfed my amd mobo and cpu and gpu then later installed it in a new case as my secondary computer.

Its always best to start out fresh when doing an extensive upgrade, now might also be a time to try windows 8.

I would save the old hd with your amd system then you can rebuild that as a backup or secondary computer if you like.
 
I'm sorry, but why wouldn't you reinstall the OS? OS installations isn't what they use to be. Aside from that, I always would want a baseline image if I'm swapping out major components, including upgrading BIOS and some softwares.
 
Tsumi said:
A google search would have yielded tons of results.
Click to expand...

Why is this the typical response from people with no insight. Sometimes you can skip a thread without responding if there is nothing useful to say. Not only that, how would you feel if this was the response to every question you ever asked?
 
I have a test setup that I have a W7 installed on. It's been booted into many and I do mean MANY different setups before. AMD and Intel. Not a single problem with it so far.
 
It's simple OP. would you rather remove all the previous gpu drivers/etc and WONDER if everything will be ok? Or would you rather do a clean install and KNOW everything will be ok?

The power is yours.
 
It's definitely best to reinstall but I would hook it all up and boot up just to see what happens. After reading this thread I think I will totally try it in the future just for kicks.
 
Haha, I just did a google search and got to this page ;) - How about that? :)

Well, I will swap my FX-8350 and Crosshair V Formula-Z (board is going to RMA since I have weird glitches / freezing issues I just cannot get rid of) for a Asus Maximus VI Formula and 4770K tomorrow. My OS is Windows 8 Pro x64 - that's pretty much why I was looking. Last time I did a similar swap was on Windows XP and that worked out kinda ok-ish :D

I'll post here, what I find tomorrow or so. Probably best to start fresh, but I just installed 2 weeks ago, trying to find out what's been wrong with my PC (motherboard...) and can't be asked to do it again. I'll just deinstall AMD drivers and give it a try. Windows 8 seems to carry enough clutter to deal with it, judging from the size occupied on my SSD.... :eek:
 
Hey, so two days in with the old OS (Win 8 Pro x64) after a change from Asus Crosshair V Formula-Z and AMD Fx-8350 to Asus Maximus VI Formula and Intel 4770K.

All worked just fine! Just read below in detail:

I deleted AMD Overdrive and AMD Driver set beforehand, Set Bios (for the return) to default settings. Then swapped the components. Windows took a little bit more time to boot, automatically rebooted. Then logon screen, at low resolution. Logged in, Windows took a bit more time doing stuff in the background. Changed the resolution back to 2560x1440 for both screens, which worked fine.
Didn't have the Intel ethernet working, so installed that quickly from the CD (old skool haha).
Rebooted, got all the drivers from the Asus website - installed them. Done.

Only issue I had was that HWMonitor and CPU-Z were still thinking I had the old system. CPU-Z was showing 1.9volts for the 4770K at idle - but AI Suite III and Bios said different. Just deinstalled both, deleted the install folder for CPUID, re-installed, done.
Otherwise no issues whatsoever, nothing. Works fine, just as before.
Of course, nobody can guarantee you that it will work for you, but from my experience, if you are busy or something and prefer to get it done quickly, just give it a try. Nobody's preventing you from a fresh install at a later time. Good luck :)
 
http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1040187530&postcount=21

Zepher said:
Cerulean said:
Oh wow, you can do that with Windows 7? Did you have do to do anything after changing out a CPU or motherboard? My knowledge is used to the Windows XP era where you were forced to reinstall Windows if you changed either motherboard or CPU. Enlighten me please! :)
Click to expand...

We've done over a dozen motherboard CPU swaps with windows 7 and they all booted up, found new hardware, and ran fine.
My brother went from an amd quad, to an amd 6 core, to a 2600k and now to a 3770k.
Upgraded my fathers machine from an amd quad to an i5, and my nephews pc from an amd 3 core with my fathers amd quad.
The most recent one was a couple of weeks ago when I upgraded my friends q9550 system to an i7 4770 and asus Sabertooth board.

The only thing to watch out is if ahci was not enabled on your old install and if the new board has it enabled, you will either blue screen and reboot, or it will just get stuck on a black screen.
Click to expand...
 
motherpuncher said:
Yeah I'm on windows 7,
Click to expand...

done it before many times, go into safe mode, uninstall drivers that are motherboard related.
(oh, and ensure you have AHCI enabled before you start)

shutdown PC, switch hardware and boot up with just the main hard drive (or ssd) connected.

99% of time it works great.


my main rig started out with vista and nforce4 (amd version), now its running windows 7 on z77 chipset, over the years it went though few motherboards, different CPUs, IDE to AHCI change, different hard drives different SSDs etc.., zero reinstalls.

reinstalling windows and 250+ apps and games would take couple weeks, don't have time to do that.

100% reliable system with no performance penalty.

its funny seeing windows 7 system with games installed in 2006 ;)
 
Last edited:
I just did the swap from AMD FX to 4770K just gone into safe mode, and W7 installed the new drivers.
At first it freeze at windows boot, but i found out i need to uninstall amd overdrive (even tho it wasn't set to load on boot). This was the only thing i had to do it manually.
I'll use it this way for a while, ofc if i experience anomalies, then i will do a clean install, but so far so good.
 
Doesn't windows register with the motherboard you used or does the activation not do further checks afterwards?

If you ever had to re-install afterwards is that when Microsoft may bug you to call or unless there has been at least a generous amount of time in between activations?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top