Moving from AMD to Intel, total overhaul of system

Hello all,

I am getting ready to move from an AMD build over to an Kaby Lake i7 7700k that I won from work :) I am pretty much replacing everything save my disk drives (Samsung 512GB 850 Pro and WD Black 1.5TB, 64mb cache). I had a few questions before I make all this changes. First I'll tell you what I am replacing with what and then I'll ask my few questions.

AMD FX-8320 >>> Intel i7 7700k
G.Skill Ripjaw X Series DDR3 1866 >>> Corsair Dominator Platinum Series DDR4 3000
Asus M5A99X Evo >>> MSI 270 Titanium XPower Gaming
Don't recall PSU >>> EVGA SuperNOVA 850 G3
Hyper Evo 212 >>> Corsair Hydro Series H115i
120 mm random fans >>> Noctua 140mm NF-p14s redux-1500 RPM fans
Antec 1100 v2 >>> Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ATX, Tempered Glass Edition
Reusing my Samsung 512GB 850 Pro
Reusing my WD Black 1.5TB, will move to 5TB WD Black in future
Reusing 2 VS248s, will move to a pair of UHD displays in future

I am considering buying a Samsung 250GB 960 Evo/Pro to use as my OS drive. Then I can use my 850 Pro for all my games and the 1.5/5TB HDD for my data. To me it seems the performance boost from the 850 Pro to the 960 series is a rather significant jump which is why I am considering it. If I take this route what is the proper way to set this up? Plug in just M.2 drive to start, install OS and updates, then plug in 850 Pro and HDD? Please let me know best practice here.

Currently my 512GB SSD has my OS and some games and my 1.5TB has just data. I plan to start fresh with both what is the best way to format both of these drives completely to start fresh with a new Win 10 install. I presume the Windows 10 Clean Install guide is probably the best place for this info. (https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/...n-install.html)

Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

The clean install would be proper as you'll be changing a lot of hardware, essentially making it a new computer. Getting Win10 activated on the new hardware may require using the Product Key that came with Win7 or Win8/8.1.

Berton said:

The clean install would be proper as you'll be changing a lot of hardware, essentially making it a new computer. Getting Win10 activated on the new hardware may require using the Product Key that came with Win7 or Win8/8.1.

I actually have a copy of Win10 Home. It's a disc version and I will not be getting an optical drive which means I will have to create a Windows 10 Home USB install drive?

cwburns32 said:

I actually have a copy of Win10 Home. It's a disc version and I will not be getting an optical drive which means I will have to create a Windows 10 Home USB install drive?

Yes.

As you stated, we do recommend that you only have the drive connected that you want to install Windows to during the install. Select the Custom Install option and if any partitions are listed on the drive you want to install to, delete them. Highlight the remaining unallocated space and click next to let the Windows installer set up the partition it wants.

After you get Windows going on the desired drive, then reconnect the other drives. Delete all the partitions on the drive you want to "recycle" and create a new primary NTFS partition on it. You can manually adjust all the drive letters except for C: drive in disk management.

NavyLCDR said:

Yes.

As you stated, we do recommend that you only have the drive connected that you want to install Windows to during the install. Select the Custom Install option and if any partitions are listed on the drive you want to install to, delete them. Highlight the remaining unallocated space and click next to let the Windows installer set up the partition it wants.

After you get Windows going on the desired drive, then reconnect the other drives. Delete all the partitions on the drive you want to "recycle" and create a new primary NTFS partition on it. You can manually adjust all the drive letters except for C: drive in disk management.

I am leaning towards getting the 960 and installing just the OS and a few of my most commonly used, smaller sized programs on there. Then hooking up the 850 and HDD for rest of games and raw storage. I will do as you recommend. NTFS partition on the 850 Pro as well?

I'm curious do I download a Win10 ISO or rip the ISO off my Win10 disc? Once I do I am confused at which method to use...I'm sure my MB will have UEFI bios but it seems to me that there is no option to format/delete partitions (prior to install) if you install via USB drive through UEFI bios...is that true? I know how to create the USB boot but want to make sure I use proper method.

I would just use the Media Creation Tool to make a fresh USB flash drive for you, Option 1 here:
USB Flash Drive - Create to Install Windows 10

Your DVD is likely to be outdated.

UEFI does not matter, boot from the USB flash drive and you can still select the custom install option, wipe partitions off the drive, and install to the unallocated space. In fact, if the drive was previously used in a legacy BIOS computer, this is the easiest way to convert the drive to GPT partitioning to work in a UEFI computer.

The USB method works if the computer can boot to it. For the unknowns I keep an External USB 2.0 CD/DVD Burner and boot to it for installing from DVD [less than $50USD].

For the USB method it seems to work best using RUFUS to make the USB Drive bootable then copy the contents of the DVD to it or Mount the .iso file and copy the contents. I've used the MCT/Media Creation Tool to create the both the USB drive and the .iso for the DVD, got Version 1607 Build 14393.442 then updated to get 14393.639.

NavyLCDR said:

I would just use the Media Creation Tool to make a fresh USB flash drive for you, Option 1 here:
USB Flash Drive - Create to Install Windows 10

Your DVD is likely to be outdated.

UEFI does not matter, boot from the USB flash drive and you can still select the custom install option, wipe partitions off the drive, and install to the unallocated space. In fact, if the drive was previously used in a legacy BIOS computer, this is the easiest way to convert the drive to GPT partitioning to work in a UEFI computer.

The drive was previously used in UEFI build and I build is already setup as GPT partitioning....I suppose it has to be as it works in my current UEFI build. DVD was purchased about 5 months ago so I suppose it is likely outdated.

Berton said:

The USB method works if the computer can boot to it. For the unknowns I keep an External USB 2.0 CD/DVD Burner and boot to it for installing from DVD [less than $50USD].

For the USB method it seems to work best using RUFUS to make the USB Drive bootable then copy the contents of the DVD to it or Mount the .iso file and copy the contents. I've used the MCT/Media Creation Tool to create the both the USB drive and the .iso for the DVD, got Version 1607 Build 14393.442 then updated to get 14393.639.

I suppose I can pick up an external CD/DVD drive as a safeguard.

I will also use either MCT or Rufus to create my USB bootable so I have multiple options. I imagine downloading the ISO will get me a more up to date version than my current DVD as mention above.

I failed to mention that using the MCT process to create the USB drive does make it bootable, did it a couple of days ago to install on an older blank drive [no partition] and worked fine, gave the version I mentioned. I was testing the computer before putting in a new drive.

Berton said:

I failed to mention that using the MCT process to create the USB drive does make it bootable, did it a couple of days ago to install on an older blank drive [no partition] and worked fine, gave the version I mentioned. I was testing the computer before putting in a new drive.

So if I am understanding correctly I can simply use an external CD/DVD drive to install from DVD but it is likely an older version = more updates afterwards. OR I can use the MCT to make a bootable USB drive with most recent, available Win10 version and boot from USB to install newer(est) version = less updates afterwards?