How clever is Windows 7 ?

SaracenSaracen At the puter !
edited January 2011 in Science & Tech
I've been out of the hardware / Operating system scene for a while and need some advice on a planned upgrade for my son currently in Uni majoring in Games Programming.

He currently has Windows 7 64 bit running on an Asus PK5C board with an E6750 Dual Core CPU and 4GB DDR2 RAM.
We've purchased a new Asus P6X58D-E board and a Core I7 CPU and 12GB DDR3 RAM.

His existing setup runs sweet with all his loaded apps albeit slow for what he is doing and the last thing we want to do is to re-install everything and re-tweak everything if we can avoid it

Is Windows 7 64bit clever enough to re-configure itself if we were to just plug his existing HD's into the new board and CPU and load all the new drivers from the supplied ASUS DVD ?
And what about the Windows 7 licensing, would it bork at the change ?

TIA
Saracen

Comments

  • SnarkasmSnarkasm Madison, WI Icrontian
    edited January 2011
    In my experience, 7 was able to install required drivers on first boot in a new system, and Windows Update took care of the rest. As far as will it screw with the licensing, quite likely. Any changes to major hardware like the mobo will register as a new install. A quick message/call to MS with an explanation that you had to rebuild your computer will set it straight, though - worked for me many a time.
  • fatcatfatcat Mizzou Icrontian
    edited January 2011
    I've called the auto-MS-thingy 3 times now. never ONCE did I talk to a real person, but had my Windows 7 re-activated within 10 minutes. the automated system works and works well imo
  • SaracenSaracen At the puter !
    edited January 2011
    Well that was easy.
    Swapped out motherboard, CPU and RAM, restarted and all was fine.
    Loaded all the new drivers from the supplied DVD and restarted when requested.
    Had to re-activate the Win 7 license via the automated phone system which was a no brainer.
    Core I7 all up and running again within 40 minutes.

    thanks for the advice Snarkasm and fatcat.
  • AlexDeGruvenAlexDeGruven Wut? Meechigan Icrontian
    edited January 2011
    Win7 works fantastically in this realm. At the worst, you might need to use device manager to remove the individual devices that will be changing, so that Windows will pick them up on boot and not cause a conflict.

    I was able to upgrade my work laptop a whole generation by just swapping the hard drive from the old into the new. A bunch of automatic driver installs and a couple of reboots later and everything was rolling right along.
  • SnarkasmSnarkasm Madison, WI Icrontian
    edited January 2011
    :thumbsup:

    'Grats on your new 'puter.
Sign In or Register to comment.