New Motherboard

[gbalonek]

I have a i5 Motherboard. If I replace it with an i7 Motherboard and a new CPU will I have to re-install Windows 7?

 

[pparks1]

For best results, I would always reload the OS after changing out a motherboard.

 

[gregrocker]

Do you have Full retail, Upgrade version, Factory or Builder's OEM?

 

[bobkn]

I have a i5 Motherboard. If I replace it with an i7 Motherboard and a new CPU will I have to re-install Windows 7?

What's an I5 motherboard?

There are both I5s and I7s available for Socket 1156 and 1155. (1155 is Sandy Bridge, temporarily off the market.) Socket 1366 is I7 only.

If you change to a motherboard with a different chipset, clean installing Win7 is probably a good idea. However, I've gotten away with swapping boards with different Intel chipsets (1366 and 1155). No problems with booting, although I can't swear that I have an optimal installation.

That's with a retail upgrade version of Windows 7. Re-activation was usually required.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello gbalonek, welcome to Seven Forums!


I would suggest, after you have copied out or made back-ups of the data you need to save to external media, use Step One of this tutorial at the link below to do a wipe (secure erase) to the entire Hard Disk Drive, running this "clean all" then using the outline in Step Two #2 to create/format and mark Active a single 100GB partition using diskpart will get you the best possible space to do a clean install of Windows 7 to; you can always extend the Windows partition to include the remaining unallocated space on the HDD / SSD or create additional partitions after the installation completes if you choose.

SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation

 

[boogieboy]

When it comes to upgrading motherboards so i'd say reinstall everything...

 

[Dwarf]

Some of the Intel 6-series motherboards have an issue with the chipset (the SandyBridge issue). I would wait until this issue has been resolved. These boards use the P67 and H67 chipsets. A fix has been developed, and should be with the motherboard manufacturers by the end of February. New/replacement motherboards should start to become available during mid April.

That issue aside, when changing a significant piece of hardware (and a motherboard is about as significant as you can get), I would strongly recommend a clean installation in order to get the best performance.