Retail version - transfer from a damaged pc

Up front: this is just a hypothetical question. It came up in a discussion about Windows licenses.

A Windows full retail version can be transferred to another PC, which is not the case with an OEM version.
Imagine the 'old' PC is damaged, fire, water, whatever, but I am still having the full retail version media and key.

Reason for asking here is that I believe(!) that the key on the old PC should first be deactivated, before Windows can be reinstalled(?)
If that is indeed the case, how to proceed in case of a damaged PC?
Or are the hardware details of the old PC (on the activation server) simply be overwritten once Windows is activated on a new PC?

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Just install your Windows OS retail version to another pc. It wouldn't affect the Windows activation.

Thanks a lot!
I assumed there would some issues due to different hardware.

Yes... I remember something like that now. An activation failed (maybe too many tries to install, I don't know) and I had to contact a specific phonenumber and enter a lllong number, I believe some 9 groups of 6 digits. I found something similar on Groovypost "Activate Your Windows 10 License via Microsoft Chat Support"
https://goo.gl/5HqjYM

I guess this will only work for retail versions.

Anyway, it was just a question out of curiosity.

Thanks!