[SOLVED] Can I swap a b450 tomahawk for a b550 tomahawk without reinstalling windows?

Im getting new parts. Im going from b450 tomahawk with a 2060 super and a 3800x, to b550 tomahawk with a 4070 ti and a 5900x.

I understand the cons of not reinstalling windows, but does anyone have any experience with this specific change? Should I 100% reinstall windows or can I get away with not doing it?

And yes I know I will have to reactivate windows but my windows key is connected to my microsoft account so not a big deal.

Thanks in advance.
 
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Im getting new parts. Im going from b450 tomahawk with a 2060 super and a 3800x, to b550 tomahawk with a 4070 ti and a 5900x.

I understand the cons of not reinstalling windows, but does anyone have any experience with this specific change? Should I 100% reinstall windows or can I get away with not doing it?

And yes I know I will have to reactivate windows but my windows key is connected to my microsoft account so not a big deal.

Thanks in advance.
You can try it but I'd definitely suggest doing a repair install with in-place upgrade at the least. Tell us how it goes and you'll have to buy a new Windows key to activate it because of the motherboard change.

As someone who's tried it twice (a B350 to B450, then B450 to...

logainofhades

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It's one of those things, where it can be a crapshoot. Sometimes it will work fine, and others it will be an unstable mess. Fresh install is typically best. Why are you buying a B550 board anyway? Your current board should have a bios update, to drop in a 5900x. I hope you intend to get a better PSU, than the one in your sig. That CX550m is not high enough on wattage, or quality, for what you are looking to upgrade to.
 
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Lutfij

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Simple answer is, no. you will need to reinstall the OS.

As is the case with most things in life, get it done the right way...unless you have a lot of time in your hands to perform troubleshooting and dissecting drivers that need rewriting and or OS files that went belly up.
 
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Im getting new parts. Im going from b450 tomahawk with a 2060 super and a 3800x, to b550 tomahawk with a 4070 ti and a 5900x.

I understand the cons of not reinstalling windows, but does anyone have any experience with this specific change? Should I 100% reinstall windows or can I get away with not doing it?

And yes I know I will have to reactivate windows but my windows key is connected to my microsoft account so not a big deal.

Thanks in advance.
You can try it but I'd definitely suggest doing a repair install with in-place upgrade at the least. Tell us how it goes and you'll have to buy a new Windows key to activate it because of the motherboard change.

As someone who's tried it twice (a B350 to B450, then B450 to B550 motherboard): it worked OK once. Be sure to uninstall all user-installed, non-default Windows drivers first. Mainly, that's chipset and GPU, possibly sound and network. You have to install them for the new board anyway.

And positively only do this if you have up-to-date backups.
 
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It's one of those things, where it can be a crapshoot. Sometimes it will work fine, and others it will be an unstable mess. Fresh install is typically best. Why are you buying a B550 board anyway? Your current board should have a bios update, to drop in a 5900x.

I need the boost in ram speed support since my mobo only supports up to 3400 and I want to get 4000 for the new cpu. I was going to go AM5 but I just cannot afford it and I am fine with sticking to AM4 for a few more years. I was also going to go x570 but I also cannot afford the price and the tomahawk b550 has a pcie 4 gpu slot. Just not sure if the rest of the pcie 3 routes will negatively impact it, but its what I can afford now.

I make content and stream. I have been having trouble editing simple 1080p video at 50mbps on my rig. So Im just looking for a affordable boost in that regard. The boost in FPS will just be a plus.
 

USAFRet

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I need the boost in ram speed support since my mobo only supports up to 3400 and I want to get 4000 for the new cpu. I was going to go AM5 but I just cannot afford it and I am fine with sticking to AM4 for a few more years. I was also going to go x570 but I also cannot afford the price and the tomahawk b550 has a pcie 4 gpu slot. Just not sure if the rest of the pcie 3 routes will negatively impact it, but its what I can afford now.

I make content and stream. I have been having trouble editing simple 1080p video at 50mbps on my rig. So Im just looking for a affordable boost in that regard. The boost in FPS will just be a plus.
And in relation to your initial question....reinstall the OS.

Just moving that install to a new motherboard/CPU/RAM may just be moving the editing problem to the new hardware.
 
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logainofhades

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Anything beyond DDR4 3600 is a waste, on Ryzen 5000. Faster than that, and you run into your ram ratio going to a 2:1, inducing latency, and a reduction in performance. Thanks to improvements, that Zen 3 brough about, regarding its cpu cache latency, there really isn't much difference to be had buying DDR4 3200 vs DDR4 3600. A Gen 3 GPU slot won't severely impact performance of a 4070ti. It doesn't really affect a 4090 all that much. https://www.techpowerup.com/review/nvidia-geforce-rtx-4090-pci-express-scaling/4.html
 
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Just wasnt sure if since theyre same brand mobos if the transition would in theory be smoother, than say going from 2 different brands/totally different drivers.
Same brand doesn't matter. It's the hardware on the board that matters...like network interface chip, sound chip, the chipset itself, which are different. It's literally all wired different. Window's will figure it out...sort of. But you're likely to be chasing gremlins for months as I was both times.
 
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Anything beyond DDR4 3600 is a waste, on Ryzen 5000. Faster than that, and you run into your ram ratio going to a 2:1, inducing latency, and a reduction in performance. Thanks to improvements, that Zen 3 brough about, regarding its cpu cache latency, there really isn't much difference to be had buying DDR4 3200 vs DDR4 3600. A Gen 3 GPU slot won't severely impact performance of a 4070ti. It doesn't really affect a 4090 all that much. https://www.techpowerup.com/review/nvidia-geforce-rtx-4090-pci-express-scaling/4.html

I currently have 3200 and I just feel I could have just that little bit more of a boost just going to 3600-4000. We know Ryzen loves its ram speed, and sure your right after a certain speed it may not affect it much, but Im making money with the computer. I see no issue with just giving it a little more than it needs. I may even consider going to 64gb of memory in the near future as well as I heard it can greatly impact stream/game performance since a lot of games are using 20gb of ram now. I use a decent bit of overlays, webcam, I upscale to 1440p from a 1080p display (youtube compression is the culprit of my upscaling).. so many reasons to just give it the fastest speed it can have, you know?
 
Same brand doesn't matter. It's the hardware on the board that matters...like network interface chip, sound chip, the chipset itself, which are different. It's literally all wired different. Window's will figure it out...sort of. But you're likely to be chasing gremlins for months as I was both times.

I just have so many files and programs and I dont have the option to use a external for backup, and to be honest, didnt feel like spending the time backing up files as I just had a newborn, full time job, family life and I make content for 3 hrs a night 4 days a week.

Just very busy and didnt know if hey, I could "try" it.. and then if I run into any major issues just do the fresh install then.

Basically, would trying it harm my new hardware, or if any issues arrise, would the fresh install just fix everything leaving no bad "issues" on my new hardware?
 

logainofhades

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I currently have 3200 and I just feel I could have just that little bit more of a boost just going to 3600-4000. We know Ryzen loves its ram speed, and sure your right after a certain speed it may not affect it much, but Im making money with the computer. I see no issue with just giving it a little more than it needs. I may even consider going to 64gb of memory in the near future as well as I heard it can greatly impact stream/game performance since a lot of games are using 20gb of ram now. I use a decent bit of overlays, webcam, I upscale to 1440p from a 1080p display (youtube compression is the culprit of my upscaling).. so many reasons to just give it the fastest speed it can have, you know?

After a certain speed it will reduce performance. 3733 is the absolute max, and that stuff is expensive, hence why AMD suggested DDR4 3600 cl16, for price/performance, a long time ago. You want to run that fast of ram, go with a 12th or 13th gen Intel setup.
 
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I just have so many files and programs and I dont have the option to use a external for backup, and to be honest, didnt feel like spending the time backing up files as I just had a newborn, full time job, family life and I make content for 3 hrs a night 4 days a week.

Just very busy and didnt know if hey, I could "try" it.. and then if I run into any major issues just do the fresh install then.

Basically, would trying it harm my new hardware, or if any issues arrise, would the fresh install just fix everything leaving no bad "issues" on my new hardware?
It's exceptionally unlikely to harm your hardware in any way...but it could potentially make your data inaccessible.

Making a backup of your data probably isn't as hard as you think it will be. First thing is: do you have multiple drives? if you do, and keep data on the second drive, that makes it extremely easy.
 
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After a certain speed it will reduce performance. 3733 is the absolute max, and that stuff is expensive, hence why AMD suggested DDR4 3600 cl16, for price/performance, a long time ago. You want to run that fast of ram, go with a 12th or 13th gen Intel setup.

I watched a bunch of videos showing good improvements going from 3200 to 3600 on 5000 series and even 3000 series.

I mean, cant believe everything you see I understand that but these were from pretty reputable sources.

And sure they usually say, it all depends on whether the cost of this performance increase is worth it to "you"

But to me, it seems as if its worth it lol.

Thanks for the input though really is appreciated.
 
It's exceptionally unlikely to harm your hardware in any way...but it could potentially make your data inaccessible.

Making a backup of your data probably isn't as hard as you think it will be. First thing is: do you have multiple drives? if you do, and keep data on the second drive, that makes it extremely easy.
Yes I have 4 drives total. When I built the pc I bought a 860 evo sata ssd for my windows drive. Later on I added a 500gb normal HD for stupid files n such. Then I added a 1tb 860 Evo QVO for video storage. Then my stream donated to buy my another 1 tb 860 evo m.2 drive that Im also using for video storage.

Yes.. I know.. windows should go on the m.2 drive. But during all these upgrades I didnt want to move the installation because then it takes my rig out of work for 2 or 3 days while I get everything back in order so I just left it on the 860 evo because its pretty snappy as is.
 
I watched a bunch of videos showing good improvements going from 3200 to 3600 on 5000 series and even 3000 series.
...

Yes I have 4 drives total. When I built the pc I bought a 860 evo sata ssd for my windows drive. Later on I added a 500gb normal HD for stupid files n such. Then I added a 1tb 860 Evo QVO for video storage. Then my stream donated to buy my another 1 tb 860 evo m.2 drive that Im also using for video storage.

Yes.. I know.. windows should go on the m.2 drive. But during all these upgrades I didnt want to move the installation because then it takes my rig out of work for 2 or 3 days while I get everything back in order so I just left it on the 860 evo because its pretty snappy as is.
That makes it much easier since the only drive that will be affected by a clean install is the one with the system on it. After the new OS is set up and operating you can give the other drives the exact same drive letters as before and access them in the same way.

Faster memory is much more benefitial to Ryzen CPU's because of the way it works...but also more difficult to reach above 3600. It can be done, but it takes some clever overclocking skills, outstanding memory kits and good quality CPU silicon. Or, you can degrade overall performance by de-linking infinity fabric from the CPU clocks which can significantly hurt overall performance.
 
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That makes it much easier since the only drive that will be affected by a clean install is the one with the system on it. After the new OS is set up and operating you can give the other drives the exact same drive letters as before and access them in the same way.

Can I just copy my entire current windows drive to a folder on 1 of my 1tb drives and then pick and choose which files I want to copy back onto the fresh install drive?

Obviously Ill have to reinstall programs.. unless I can just copy their folders back over lol..?
 

USAFRet

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I just have so many files and programs and I dont have the option to use a external for backup, and to be honest, didnt feel like spending the time backing up files as I just had a newborn, full time job, family life and I make content for 3 hrs a night 4 days a week.

Just very busy and didnt know if hey, I could "try" it.. and then if I run into any major issues just do the fresh install then.

Basically, would trying it harm my new hardware, or if any issues arrise, would the fresh install just fix everything leaving no bad "issues" on my new hardware?
Sorry, but your personal data should never be at the mercy of a single drive or OS install.

If yo u have a single drive with your OS and your data....dropping this into all new hardware may involve a full OS reinstall.
Which means a full wipe of all data on it.

Or, some mechanical/electrical fault during this hardware swap.

You really really need to get a handle on a backup of your data before you go down this road.
I get "busy" and "family" We ALL have that,

But your data is your responsibility. Given a single copy of it...it can go away at any moment.
And considering a major hardware change...even more likely to simply go away.
 
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Can I just copy my entire current windows drive to a folder on 1 of my 1tb drives and then pick and choose which files I want to copy back onto the fresh install drive?

Obviously Ill have to reinstall programs.. unless I can just copy their folders back over lol..?
No.

And keep in mind, what I was saying about the data drives applies only for data. Any programs or apps installed on those drives will have to be re-installed for the new OS.

And no, you can never just copy folders and expect apps, programs and definitely not the OS to function. And if you do, it may take a bit of an expert with administrator access to pick out data and recover it for you. It's a gamble even I'd not take.
 
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No.

And keep in mind, what I was saying about the data drives applies only for data. Any programs or apps installed on those drives will have to be re-installed for the new OS.

So things like, downloads, documents, photos, video files, and my steam game library... stuff like that can be copied over.

Reinstall programs like Afterburner, Sony vegas, OBS, etc...

But in theory, I could still save my obs settings folders and such and copy them back over later yes?