Hi guys, Iam about to upgrade to a 2500K and a Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3 (feel free to recommend another for a similar price) and was wondering if a fresh install of windows was really necessary after installing the hardware? I know it always used to be a must but these days wouldnt windows just detect and install necessary drivers? and not forgetting the drivers disc provided with the motherboard.
There's no need to reinstall, but you'll feel dirty if you don't. I recommend taking the opportunity, you'll be glad you did.
if your lucky this will be true, but more often than not, motherboard drivers may cause an issue. if they do cause an issue, you can do an upgrade install, with your current key, and it will all be fine, might need to do windows updates again after upgrade. you might have to do a phone activation if you are using an oem license
I agree with Rich. It depends on how lucky you are. Most cases, it's a re-install. Also, once you get your motherboard install and at the BIOS configuration page be sure: -> That you set eXteme Memory Profile (X.M.P) to Profile 1 (and not Default). Else you won't use your RAM specifications. -> That you set your SATA Controller from IDE to AHCI. Always use AHCI on modern OS (Vista and up), use IDE for legacy OS (such as XP). AHCI modes provides: -> eSATA support -> Hot swappable feature for HDD's -> TRIM support (protect SSD's from performance deterioration). -> NCQ - greatly improve HDD performance. (The problem with HDD is access time.. when you read a lot of small files, this is where HDD struggles the most in term of performance. NCQ changes the behavior of data access of the HDD)
ha I know exactly what you mean, I think I will start a fresh, new computer, new start and all! I ve just got so many pics, films and programs its going to take hours, oh well, an excuse to be anti social
