Question Swapping Intel CPU's...

[Charlie98]

I replaced the i5 2500K in my primary desktop with an AMD chip and new mobo, what I want to do is swap the trusty i5 into my HTPC. It currently has an i3 2100 Sandy Bridge on a B75 mobo. Can I make a successful swap, or do I need to uninstall any drivers beforehand? It's still on W7, BTW.

 

[lobz]

I replaced the i5 2500K in my primary desktop with an AMD chip and new mobo, what I want to do is swap the trusty i5 into my HTPC. It currently has an i3 2100 Sandy Bridge on a B75 mobo. Can I make a successful swap, or do I need to uninstall any drivers beforehand? It's still on W7, BTW.

It's always advised to reinstall windows when swapping CPUs. However if you don't change the motherboard, chances are it'll work anyway. I've done this a couple times before, as I'm the laziest person ever to have been born.
It won't be a clean windows and registry may fill up a bit, but a HTPC should finction well enough.

Officially: don't do this at home! Unofficially: I really hope it'll be as smooth for you as it has been for me 🙂

 

[kaizer777]

If it makes you feel any better, I swapped out my daughter's PC from an i3-4160 to a Ryzen 5 2600x. The only thing I re-installed where the chipset drivers. So far she hasn't had any issues. I also swapped the motherboard on my R5 3600 HTPC without issues there as well.

As lobz said, it's recommended that you do a fresh install of Windows, but modern Windows is a lot more resilient to this sort of thing than it was in the old days. Your mileage my vary.

 

[yeshua]

Based on my anecdotal evidence you can run Windows just fine after replacing everything except HDDs (and even that can be rectified quite easily by booting from rescue media).

A few months ago I swapped my system based on Intel Core i5 2500 with Ryzen 7 3700X and Windows 7 worked just fine on it regardless.

If you're replacing just a CPU, Windows will run just fine (except you might need to reactivate it again).

Also, people for some reasons believe chipset drivers must always be installed but I've usually never done that and I've had zero issues so far.

 

[lobz]

@kaizer777 and @yeshua yep, although depending on your license or activation method ( ), your previous authentication key may not work anymore when you change the motherboard - just something to keep in mind. Also I'm sure we've all come to love the sudden full-black desktop wallpaper 🙂 🙂

 

[yeshua]

@kaizer777 and @yeshua yep, although depending on your license or activation method ( ), your previous authentication key may not work anymore when you change the motherboard - just something to keep in mind. Also I'm sure we've all come to love the sudden full-black desktop wallpaper 🙂 🙂

Actually I love the black desktop background. 🙂 Doesn't distract from anything, and it's easy on my eyes - just to be sure I'm not advocating for pirating software.

 

[Charlie98]

your previous authentication key may not work anymore when you change the motherboard - just something to keep in mind.

No, I just went through that validation circle jerk with MS when I did a fresh install with a new W10Pro key, and had to swap mobos after one day. Oddly enough, the person to person call didn't work... but the automatic reactivation did.

In this case, it's just the processor, not the mobo... but it's something to consider. I've also thought about swapping the 2500K/Z68 mobo combo from the old computer into the HTPC... 4 cores at 4.1GHz doesn't sound like a bad idea... and the W7 key would automatically revalidate.

 

[kaizer777]

@kaizer777 and @yeshua yep, although depending on your license or activation method ( ), your previous authentication key may not work anymore when you change the motherboard - just something to keep in mind. Also I'm sure we've all come to love the sudden full-black desktop wallpaper 🙂 🙂

That's a good point. I've been using a VLK through my employer so long that I never worry about burning keys.

 

[DooKey]

You are changing just the cpu and both are same generation so it shouldn't be a problem. No new drivers needed. I've done this multiple times over the years with no trouble/problems.