[SOLVED] Moving from i7-930 to i9-10850K. 10 Year gap. Need to reinstall Windows?

[edo101]

Hi guys, as the title says, I am moving from my old i7-930 BIOS to i9-10850K UEFI after so long. Do I need to reinstall my Windows partitions (I have two) or can I just continue as business as usual? Of course this means a whole new motherboard too lol

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

Because you are changing the motherboard, a fresh install of Windows is strongly advised.

 

[USAFRet]

Need to reinstall Windows?

Yes.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

Which OS?
Assuming Win10...
For the OS activation, read and do this before you change any parts:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/20530/windows-10-reactivating-after-hardware-change

 

[edo101]

Yes.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

Which OS?
Assuming Win10...
For the OS activation, read and do this before you change any parts:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/20530/windows-10-reactivating-after-hardware-change

@USAFRet Yes, it is Windows 10

 

[edo101]

Because you are changing the motherboard, a fresh install of Windows is strongly advised.

For what reason?

 

[USAFRet]

For what reason?

A Windows install is not nearly as modular as we all wish it were.

New motherboard + old drive and OS, there are 3 possible outcomes:

1. It works just fine
2. It fails completely
3. It "works", but you're chasing issues for weeks/months.

Win 10 is much better than previous versions, but by no means 100% "just plug it in with the new hardware".
Increasingly, we are seeing #3. Initially "it works". Then...the issues appear.

For this level of change, I expect #2 or 3.

Plus, a fresh install lets you get rid of all the gunk you've built up over the years since that i7-930 was new.

 

[King Dranzer]

For what reason?

Because New Motherboard + CPU + RAM come with New Set of Drivers for Hardware onboard. So if you use old OS Installed on Disk. It may work fine initially but at some point it may lead to issues like crashing and even stuff like Audio and other basic components not working fine. And some feature may not even be accessible. To avoid all this Headache. It is better to Fresh Install OS.

 

[edo101]

A Windows install is not nearly as modular as we all wish it were.

New motherboard + old drive and OS, there are 3 possible outcomes:

1. It works just fine
2. It fails completely
3. It "works", but you're chasing issues for weeks/months.

Win 10 is much better than previous versions, but by no means 100% "just plug it in with the new hardware".
Increasingly, we are seeing #3. Initially "it works". Then...the issues appear.

For this level of change, I expect #2 or 3.

Plus, a fresh install lets you get rid of all the gunk you've built up over the years since that i7-930 was new.

Because New Motherboard + CPU + RAM come with New Set of Drivers for Hardware onboard. So if you use old OS Installed on Disk. It may work fine initially but at some point it may lead to issues like crashing and even stuff like Audio and other basic components not working fine. And some feature may not even be accessible. To avoid all this Headache. It is better to Fresh Install OS.

I see. Man gonna be painful but I get it. My last resintall was a month and half ago though... On the old system of course

 

[Math Geek]

the few hours of "headache" is much preferred to weeks of chasing random issues down. that's the way to think of it. no so much what it will take to de the fresh install, but rather what it will save you from having to troubleshoot issue after issue after issue until you finally break down and do the fresh install anyway.

 

[edo101]

A Windows install is not nearly as modular as we all wish it were.

New motherboard + old drive and OS, there are 3 possible outcomes:

1. It works just fine
2. It fails completely
3. It "works", but you're chasing issues for weeks/months.

Win 10 is much better than previous versions, but by no means 100% "just plug it in with the new hardware".
Increasingly, we are seeing #3. Initially "it works". Then...the issues appear.

For this level of change, I expect #2 or 3.

Plus, a fresh install lets you get rid of all the gunk you've built up over the years since that i7-930 was new.

Because New Motherboard + CPU + RAM come with New Set of Drivers for Hardware onboard. So if you use old OS Installed on Disk. It may work fine initially but at some point it may lead to issues like crashing and even stuff like Audio and other basic components not working fine. And some feature may not even be accessible. To avoid all this Headache. It is better to Fresh Install OS.

What about the fact that I intend to upgrade my current SATA 2.5 SSD to an NvME in a few weeks after some research

If l do fresh installs now.Do I just clone these installs unto the NVME whenever I get it. That should work right? Or do I need to do another fresh intall just for a different SSD... albiet a quite different SSD? My current SSD is a Samsung 830. Way back from 2012. The NVME will be a completely different animal. Do I need to go through fresh installs again?
@King Dranzer @USAFRet

 

[Math Geek]

you can clone the install if it was done on the new system. it works more often than not. but cloning is not foolproof either and can cause lots of problems as well. you might just be better off waiting until you have the whole new system ready to go and then do one good install and be done with it. but if you can't wait, you can try the clone route. it usually works....

i just keep the steam/origin game files on a separate partition and then do fresh installs whenever i feel like it. only takes a couple hours and i find it comforting. that's the biggest download really and what most folks want to avoid having to redo over and over. those files can be backed-up and restored easily. the rest is not so bad as i get to only install what i am using at the moment. it is amazing how much stuff gets installed that only gets used once and forgotten about. lots of space to save weeding out the junk

 

[King Dranzer]

What about the fact that I intend to upgrade my current SATA 2.5 SSD to an NvME in a few weeks after some research

If l do fresh installs now.Do I just clone these installs unto the NVME whenever I get it. That should work right? Or do I need to do another fresh intall just for a different SSD... albiet a quite different SSD? My current SSD is a Samsung 830. Way back from 2012. The NVME will be a completely different animal. Do I need to go through fresh installs again?
@King Dranzer @USAFRet

Like if you plan to swap it out in Less than a Month. Then yeah simply Plug in old Windows10 Drive. No need to fresh Install now. You can do that once when you have NVMe drive Purchased.
Also why are you holding off on NVMe Drive. Is there a specific reason.

 

[edo101]

you can clone the install if it was done on the new system. it works more often than not. but cloning is not foolproof either and can cause lots of problems as well. you might just be better off waiting until you have the whole new system ready to go and then do one good install and be done with it. but if you can't wait, you can try the clone route. it usually works....

i just keep the steam/origin game files on a separate partition and then do fresh installs whenever i feel like it. only takes a couple hours and i find it comforting. that's the biggest download really and what most folks want to avoid having to redo over and over. those files can be backed-up and restored easily. the rest is not so bad as i get to only install what i am using at the moment. it is amazing how much stuff gets installed that only gets used once and forgotten about. lots of space to save weeding out the junk

Can you clone to the new NVME then from Windows 10 do a system reset? Would that equate to a clean install?

Also is it okay to by a 1TB NVME then partition it to where one partion handles some games? Or is it better to keep two different SSDs. One SSD for OS and another for games?

 

[Math Geek]

does not really matter where you make the second partition. a second physical drive of course protects it from drive failure but otherwise so long as it is separate from windows, then it'll stay if you do a fresh install. i use separate drives myself but that's personal preference really. so i have windows on nvme drive and other base programs. then a couple games i might be playing at the moment. the rest of the stuff sits on a second sata ssd which is plenty fast enough for me.

then my data is sitting on a third drive staying separate from both of the others. it holds vm files as well for me. then i have a 4th drive i use for "other" stuff. for instance as a work drive when i am messing with video files. it stays empty and gets formatted often as it is not meant for long term storage. sometimes it gets used for a new OS i want to play with outside of a vm or anything else i might want free space then i blow it away when done.

 

[edo101]

Like if you plan to swap it out in Less than a Month. Then yeah simply Plug in old Windows10 Drive. No need to fresh Install now. You can do that once when you have NVMe drive Purchased.
Also why are you holding off on NVMe Drive. Is there a specific reason.

I wanted to research. I don't know anything about nvme. I've been on a 10 year old platform. I don't know which ones will give my GPU issues or my SATA drives issues. I don't know if I need to get a SATA NVME or PCI-E NVME. I don't know what capacity to get. And I don't know which brand is a good brand and which brand is a ripoff. Or what specs I should look at when looking for an NVME

@King Dranzer

 

[Math Geek]

your motherboard determines what you can use. new mobo's will have pcie 3.0 x4 support more than likely. if it has pcie 4.0 (not intel right now so no go for you) then you could consider a 4.0 drive.

but honestly, if you are buying new, i'd highly suggest a ryzen build over intel at this time. they got the performance crown and are cheaper and use less power and have pcie 4.0 and and and. been a long time since you've built so you may not have noticed. but amd is the current king of the hill and will be for a while longer. you'll save money not needing a top end mobo and high end cooling for a ryzen chip. can put that cash into a faster nvme drive or higher capacity and so on or a better gpu or whatever else. or just save the cash and don't spend it.

here is tom's review for that intel chip.

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-core-i9-10850k-cpu-review

notice that ryzen beats it all around, then look at the power used and thermals and so on. then price a nice ryzen system without the high end cooling and so on and see the difference. more performance, less cost, less heat, less power used = a no brainer !!

 

[edo101]

your motherboard determines what you can use. new mobo's will have pcie 3.0 x4 support more than likely. if it has pcie 4.0 (not intel right now so no go for you) then you could consider a 4.0 drive.

but honestly, if you are buying new, i'd highly suggest a ryzen build over intel at this time. they got the performance crown and are cheaper and use less power and have pcie 4.0 and and and. been a long time since you've built so you may not have noticed. but amd is the current king of the hill and will be for a while longer. you'll save money not needing a top end mobo and high end cooling for a ryzen chip. can put that cash into a faster nvme drive or higher capacity and so on or a better gpu or whatever else. or just save the cash and don't spend it.

here is tom's review for that intel chip.

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-core-i9-10850k-cpu-review

notice that ryzen beats it all around, then look at the power used and thermals and so on. then price a nice ryzen system without the high end cooling and so on and see the difference. more performance, less cost, less heat, less power used = a no brainer !!

Yeah I was gonna go for a 5900X but those ain't in stock and then I got a brand new 10850K for $240. Was not my first choice at all but you can;'t say no to a brand new 10850K for $240.
And the Taichi board I have supports gen 4 apparently. But it looks like I'm limited to PCI-3 but I don't mind as I don't wanna spend a bunch of money for negligbile difference even if I do upgrade to a PCI-E rocket lake

 

[Math Geek]

yah $240 is a good price for sure. that would be hard to pass up for sure.

right now intel does not support pcie 4.0, but as noted the performance gain is not worth the price increase. really just about any name brand nvme drive is good enough. i have been looking and am mainly looking at the TBW since they are all pretty much the same in day to day real world performance. i've narrowed it down to a couple with good endurance and will likely pull the trigger soon myself.

 

[edo101]

yah $240 is a good price for sure. that would be hard to pass up for sure.

right now intel does not support pcie 4.0, but as noted the performance gain is not worth the price increase. really just about any name brand nvme drive is good enough. i have been looking and am mainly looking at the TBW since they are all pretty much the same in day to day real world performance. i've narrowed it down to a couple with good endurance and will likely pull the trigger soon myself.

TBW?

 

[USAFRet]

TBW?

Terabytes Written.

An SSD is warranted for a specific number of years, and generally a specified number of write cycles.
Each 'cell' on the device has a limited number of write cycles. Large, but there IS a limit.
The drive firmware shuffles data around, to level out that usage. Wear leveling.

But...that is generally not a concern in typical consumer use.
A Samsung SSD may have a warranty number of 600TBW. Whereas another drive of the same size might be 700TBW.
"OMG! the Samsung sux!"

No...that 600TBW is so far into the future as to be totally unrealistic as a measuring tool.

Real world numbers:
All the drives in my system combined have a total TBW of ~85TBW.
Some of these drives going on 6 years old.

On a yearls basis, that 85TBW works out to 14TB per year.
At a rate of 14TB per year, starting at 2014, that 600TBW number wouldn't be reached until 2056.

I think it is safe to say that my youngest grandson won't be using this same drive when he is 66 years old.

 

[King Dranzer]

Purchase SAMSUNG 970 EVO or WD Black SN750 500GB or 1TB depending on how much you wanna spend.

 

[USAFRet]

Can you clone to the new NVME then from Windows 10 do a system reset? Would that equate to a clean install?

No.

You can do a clean install on whichever drive, in the new system.
Then, clone to the NVMe drive later.

Or, you can wait until you get the NVMe to go with the all new hardware, and do the clean install on that drive.

A clone done from the old system, no matter what drive, does not negate the requirement for a clean install in the new hardware.

 

[King Dranzer]

I recommend Purchasing NVMe SSD and Installing it straight away. No need to hold off the Purchase. I listed two of the Top drives. Purchase either one of it. NVMe PCIe Gen 4 SSDs are a Level up but as you are going Intel Route. No point purchasing it unless you wanna upgrade the Intel CPU just Next year. If that is not the case. Please go ahead with the Purchase of PCIe Gen 3 SSD.

 

[edo101]

Purchase SAMSUNG 970 EVO or WD Black SN750 500GB or 1TB depending on how much you wanna spend.

Whats the difference between the two? justa matter of price and your favorite brand? @King Dranzer

 

[Math Geek]

the 970 is a small bit better. but other than price, they are very close in performance. what you get is the brand name that means you know it is going to be a good drive for the money. there are many cheaper brands but they don't offer the quality you get with these brands.

the western digital blue sn550 is below $100 for the 1 tb model now. it's a great buy and only trails the sn750 by a small bit but is a lot cheaper. i saw it for $95 and will probably buy it today or tomorrow due to the great price. the TBW is not as high as i'd like but in the end replacing it in 5 years instead of 10 is not that big of a deal to me.