Windows Product Key

[Gamergod88]

So I think I have a bit of a problem,

My hdd failed and I'm sending it back to western digital, so this means my copy of windows is gone with it.

I've read that I can reinstall it on the same PC as many times as you want, but I'll obviously installing it onto a different drive, in fact I actually bought an SSD to boot it onto.

I'm assuming PC's are recognized based on the motherboard, except just tonight I put in a new intel core i7 4790k and a new ASUS motherboard, can I still use my product key somehow, will I have to buy a new one, or should I just pirate a key.

Also, will my gtx 960 bottleneck my i7

 

[viometrix]

you can reuse the product key, you just may have to call Microsoft to reactivate it, no big deal. and no your gpu will not bottleneck your cpu.

 

[mlga91]

It depends on the license, it is a retail/OEM copy? it is windows 7 /8? You can keep using a retail license when you change your motherboard, with OEM licenses, you need to contact microsoft and tell them the situation, they usually let you use it again in another motherboard. I heard that windows 7 OEM licences are a bit more problematic in this regard, with windows 8 they almost always let you re-use the licence.

As for bottlenecks, hell no, that's a top of the line CPU and a mid class GPU.

 

[capt_taco]

If you have an OEM version of Windows, you will probably have to argue with them, but if you are convincing you can do it. Usually they will say new motherboard = new system unless the old motherboard went bad. But just bring up the fact that your system was failing and you REPLACED some components, not upgraded, and that should be enough.

If you have the full retail version of Windows, you can move it around to a different machine as much as you want.

Almost any card will theoretically be a "bottleneck" to that i7 simply because CPUs are far enough ahead of most games' requirements these days that CPU power is rarely the limiting factor. But the 960 is a decent card and you should not need to worry about performance regardless, not unless you are really going for it on GPU-intensive games at high settings.

 

[socklosk]

I just went through this and they will ask if you upgrades to 10 before or after the motherboard. This is key. I said that the motherboard was installed before installing windows which would make it a repair, and not an upgrade.