Hi everyone! I'm about to upgrade my PC setup and I'd like some advice. Currently, I have a Ryzen 7 2700X, an Asus B450F motherboard, 16GB of RAM, a PCIe 3.0 1TB Samsung M.2 SSD, and an MSI 2080 GPU with Windows 10 Pro installed. I'm planning to upgrade to a Ryzen 7 5800X3D, an Asus B650E TUF motherboard, and 32GB of G.Skill RAM, along with a new PCIe 4.0 2TB Samsung M.2 SSD, while keeping my MSI 2080 GPU.
Here are my questions:
1. Should I download drivers for the new motherboard, CPU, and RAM and save them to my old SSD before transferring Windows or should I use a USB stick?
2. What's the best way to do a "fresh" install of Windows on the new SSD without losing my files and apps? I'm open to upgrading to Windows 11, but I want to make sure I keep everything intact and boot from the new PCIe 4.0 drive instead of my old PCIe 3.0 drive.
To summarize, how can I go about performing this fresh install while preserving my existing files and applications? Or would it just be easier to boot from my old drive and do a clone after?
2 Answers
You actually wouldn't want to use a B650 board with the 5800X3D since it's an AM5 platform. However, if you stick with the current board, the 5800X3D can still work. As for cloning your drive, consider using software like Macrium Reflect to make the transition smoother.
When migrating to a new setup, it's a good idea to prepare by using sysprep, which helps in moving your system to a different architecture. But since Windows 10 is reaching its end of life, why not just do a clean install of Windows 11? You can easily transfer files from OneDrive and Steam does a good job with app transfers too.
I don’t use OneDrive, though, so I wouldn't rely on that. I'm open to the Windows 11 upgrade, but I'm a bit concerned about potential corruption during the migration.