Desktop Computers

Lambourne

Lambourne

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Anyone have experience swapping a windows installation over to a new generation of mainboard/cpu without a re-install? Just plugging the nvme drive from the old board into the new and yolo'ing it?

Back in the olden days this was a recipe for disaster and I've always gone with a new drive but I am finding some posts that it's doable these days.
 
Palum

Palum

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Lambourne said:
Anyone have experience swapping a windows installation over to a new generation of mainboard/cpu without a re-install? Just plugging the nvme drive from the old board into the new and yolo'ing it?

Back in the olden days this was a recipe for disaster and I've always gone with a new drive but I am finding some posts that it's doable these days.
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Yes I've done it. Probably more trouble than it's worth if you just need files though. Also depending how long it's been having a boot disk on a nvme drive, might be wise to upgrade it and start fresh with no degradation and copy everything over you want then reformat the old drive.

Windows uses the TPM on your processor so you can't just plug and play old boot volume into new proc.
 
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Intrinsic

Intrinsic

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Having done this about 20 times the last week I wouldn’t risk it vs the 15 minutes it takes with a USB drive to reinstall Windows.
 
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Lambourne

Lambourne

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It's not so much the Windows installation but all the various website passwords, settings, savegames, email profiles etc that need restoring that always bug me. Wasn't aware it was even possible now.
 
Jovec

Jovec

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It's gotten a lot better, but there were some nasty performance issues around core parking when swapping between the 7800X3D and 7950X3D from the chipset drivers and I don't know if those ever got fixed.
 
Lanx

Lanx

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done it once or twice, it works, but yea only to like "get information off" of it then reinstall a real os
 
Palum

Palum

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Lambourne said:
It's not so much the Windows installation but all the various website passwords, settings, savegames, email profiles etc that need restoring that always bug me. Wasn't aware it was even possible now.
Click to expand...
Almost everything has either cloud profiles or a way to manually restore from files.
 
Malakriss

Malakriss

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I cloned my last hard drive to a new one, swapped everything with minimal disassembly to a smaller case for a family member (5000D vs 4000D), then built a new one with the old case. Did Windows boot on the new setup? Sure, but GPU drivers/software did not like it, Windows had some issues like detecting audio over HDMI, etc. You have to DDU and install everything GPU/mobo related like you would a fresh Windows anyways.

Helped to have an airblaster when swapping, some are way more powerful than you think and completely clear any dust out of the fin stacks
 
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Xexx

Xexx

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Lambourne said:
Anyone have experience swapping a windows installation over to a new generation of mainboard/cpu without a re-install? Just plugging the nvme drive from the old board into the new and yolo'ing it?

Back in the olden days this was a recipe for disaster and I've always gone with a new drive but I am finding some posts that it's doable these days.
Click to expand...
Only time id redo windows is if going from intel to AMD otherwise id keep sliding that nvme into allllllll the slots.
 
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Leadsalad

Leadsalad

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I just cloned my current drive and stuck it into another system. Both AMD based with nVidia GPUs, no problem so far.
 
Intrinsic

Intrinsic

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Finally got my build to a place that I'm calling it quits. Did my best with cables this time, short of some better combs or custom ModCables I'm not sure what else to do. Other than more time and effort for minimal aesthetic results. The North XL is very easy to work in and feels premium. Fans are easy to access, plenty of room inside, comes apart / goes together easily.

Still waiting on a response from Powercolor on my card so will probably need to go back in again at some point. Otherwise, it works like a charm.

I wish I knew a better way to route the cables for the top fans. Not using any AIO in this so the top and rear exhaust PWM cables look bad. The passthrough for the 3x 8 pin is not aligned with where the connectors are on the Red Devil which makes them not perpendicular. That irritates me a bit. Also the rear exhaust 120mm cannot go any lower to line up with the Peerless Assassin fans, blocked by the expansion port.

Will probably just end up turning off the RGB since it'll be under my desk. No particular reason it was there, the ram and cpu fans happen to have it, and the NewEgg combo with the 9800x3d had the regular and not Lite Taichi. So I gots some if I wants some. I tried Signal RGB and it won't control the Red Devil. The Keystone software sucks terribly and is almost non--functional with card it feels. Polychrome also was hit or miss.

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Lambourne

Lambourne

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Intrinsic said:
Finally got my build to a place that I'm calling it quits. Did my best with cables this time, short of some better combs or custom ModCables I'm not sure what else to do. Other than more time and effort for minimal aesthetic results. The North XL is very easy to work in and feels premium. Fans are easy to access, plenty of room inside, comes apart / goes together easily.

Still waiting on a response from Powercolor on my card so will probably need to go back in again at some point. Otherwise, it works like a charm.

I wish I knew a better way to route the cables for the top fans. Not using any AIO in this so the top and rear exhaust PWM cables look bad. The passthrough for the 3x 8 pin is not aligned with where the connectors are on the Red Devil which makes them not perpendicular. That irritates me a bit. Also the rear exhaust 120mm cannot go any lower to line up with the Peerless Assassin fans, blocked by the expansion port.

Will probably just end up turning off the RGB since it'll be under my desk. No particular reason it was there, the ram and cpu fans happen to have it, and the NewEgg combo with the 9800x3d had the regular and not Lite Taichi. So I gots some if I wants some. I tried Signal RGB and it won't control the Red Devil. The Keystone software sucks terribly and is almost non--functional with card it feels. Polychrome also was hit or miss.

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Was looking at that case for a build. Is the top panel on that metal or plastic?

I've used the Fractal cases before and I like them. Used the Define series which is extremely quiet. Liked it enough that I bought the same again for the next build. First one is going on 9 years old now and the fans that came with it are still nice and quiet.

Wouldn't worry about the rear fan not lining up, air won't do what you want it to anyway and it can take unpredictable paths. I smoke tested mine once and it was drawing in air at the bottom of the rear grille and blowing it out the same grille 3 inches higher. Also had one where setting the rear fan to blow inward made it run cooler. If temperature and noise levels are acceptable, close it up and don't think about it anymore.
 
Noodleface

Noodleface

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In terms of boot drives you should be able to move them around willy nilly. We install OS in our lab in one system and move it to whatever system we want. It's not like the partition table is tied to any hardware IDs
 
Lambourne

Lambourne

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Was looking at the 7800x3d but I ended up getting a really good package deal for a 5700x3d. Got the cpu, mainboard and 32g of DDR4 for less than the 7800X3D cpu alone would have cost me. It's an older platform but it's hard to beat for the performance. Substantial upgrade over my i5-9400F.

I did end up chancing it moving the SSD over and so far it's been entirely stable. It reinstalled some drivers and I had to reactivate it but apart from that there have been zero error messages or crashes.
 
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Zindan

Zindan

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I'll be getting my new system in a couple weeks, I probably paid quite a bit more going the pre built route, but I'm ok with that. I am a bit disappointed with getting 5600 ram vs. 6000, but I'm also not sure I would notice the difference at all. Current system was made by the same company I got my new one from, and is an i5-11600k with a 3060. Been really good, tbh. New system will be a 7800x3d with a 5070ti. Barring hardware failures, this new system should last me longer than my current one, I think. I am a bit apprehensive about learning/messing around with Windows 11 though.
 
Noodleface

Noodleface

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Zindan said:
I'll be getting my new system in a couple weeks, I probably paid quite a bit more going the pre built route, but I'm ok with that. I am a bit disappointed with getting 5600 ram vs. 6000, but I'm also not sure I would notice the difference at all. Current system was made by the same company I got my new one from, and is an i5-11600k with a 3060. Been really good, tbh. New system will be a 7800x3d with a 5070ti. Barring hardware failures, this new system should last me longer than my current one, I think. I am a bit apprehensive about learning/messing around with Windows 11 though.
Click to expand...
Windows 11 really isn't all that different from 10 outside of a few UI changes
 
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Lambourne

Lambourne

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Zindan said:
I'll be getting my new system in a couple weeks, I probably paid quite a bit more going the pre built route, but I'm ok with that. I am a bit disappointed with getting 5600 ram vs. 6000, but I'm also not sure I would notice the difference at all. Current system was made by the same company I got my new one from, and is an i5-11600k with a 3060. Been really good, tbh. New system will be a 7800x3d with a 5070ti. Barring hardware failures, this new system should last me longer than my current one, I think. I am a bit apprehensive about learning/messing around with Windows 11 though.
Click to expand...

5600 vs 6000 makes very little difference in most tasks, 2-3%. 5600 is the max it officially supports although most will do 6000.

If you hate windows 11 you can install Windows 10 LTSC IoT which will get security updates for years to come. It's the only version of windows I find tolerable because it has most of the annoyances removed. Doesn't need to cost anything, check the "FWT" threads on 4chan's /g board.
 
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Xexx

Xexx

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I dont think its been a full year since i said i wouldnt liquid cool again for a while, but the itch is growing :/ I wanted to wait on 6090s to give it some time off but at this rate i feel in a couple years GPUs will all start over 4k. I dont mind flipping shit like that but considering how little i game now i cant get behind using a 4k gpu to play team fight tactics or final fantasy :eek:

I think a bigger upgrade at this point would be a 5k2k LG monitor
 
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