Upgrading MB and CPU - Do I have to reinstall Win 7?

I have an ASUS M4A79T Deluxe MB with an AMD Phenom II Quad Core 965 Black Edition CPU. I now have the X6 fever and am ready to buy a new ASUS Crosshair IV (funny how roman number IV could be interchanged with the medical term for main lining??). My question is if I can just swap these out, plug in my current (non raid) 150G Raptor system drive and have it boot with my current OS (Win 7) installation intact.

I am also thinking about replacing the Raptor system drive with a solid state drive and would love recommendations for a ghost like program that will make an image of my current system drive and put right onto the new solid state drive so I do not have to spend hours, days, weeks, months, tweeking and getting my apps and settings just the way I want them.

Thanks for any suggestions.

1strail said:

I have an ASUS M4A79T Deluxe MB with an AMD Phenom II Quad Core 965 Black Edition CPU. I now have the X6 fever and am ready to buy a new ASUS Crosshair IV (funny how roman number IV could be interchanged with the medical term for main lining??). My question is if I can just swap these out, plug in my current (non raid) 150G Raptor system drive and have it boot with my current OS (Win 7) installation intact.

I am also thinking about replacing the Raptor system drive with a solid state drive and would love recommendations for a ghost like program that will make an image of my current system drive and put right onto the new solid state drive so I do not have to spend hours, days, weeks, months, tweeking and getting my apps and settings just the way I want them.

Thanks for any suggestions.

You may be able to get it close, but not perfect. Since you are into performance a re-install is the best way to get it spot on. It is a PITA but worth it for that last bit.

BTW I would use Acronis true image for the image.


Ken

Thanks Ken - You confirmed what I think I already new and in the end, a clean install is always the best. Since I have a few boxes, I'll build it, set it next to the current one for a few weeks and just slowley transfer everything via Windows Easy Transfer.

Swapping the mobo and the CPU means windows will be deactivated whether you have OEM win7 or retail. So you'll need to reactivate, I hope you have a retail/upgrade key.

Further, your current drivers wont work, so you'll have to replace those.

I do have the retail version, 3 user license. I am curious how MS identifes each activation, whether they do it using IP sub net or computer name. I once had to re-install because of something stupid that I did and had no problem re-activating.

Duh, I guess I new about the drivers being different, just spaced it for a second. After the re-install, windows did install updates right after install completed that were all MB specific drivers. I had not seen this before. After that restart, it then went on to install 53 more updates, mostly windows security and patch updates.

Retai version 3 user license? You mean the home premium family pack?

Yes - That is what I mean