In a couple of weeks I want to purchase an i5-4670k and a motherboard for it because I want to switch to intel. My major question is, do Ihave to format my HDD and reinstall Windows? Thanks for the help.
No you shouldn't have to do anything except maybe install some new drivers for your motherboard but no you won't have to reinstall windows
I did somthing similar a few weeks ago upgrading from a AMD 790GX system to a Z87 system. My pc would not boot off the old hardrive. As soon as i got the windows logo, it blue screened. It would do this in safemode as well. I recomend backing up your data and preparing for the possibility of a similar situation.
yes you have to reinstall. If you dont reinstall your system will not run at peek. The old drives from amd and other hardware will f#$@ with your OS. In some cases you can change without much of a slowdown. but that is usually on the same hardware types. ie am2 to am3/am3+ or 1155 to 1150. i would take jcat187's advice and back up if you are going to try and just do a hardware swap.
No, No, Nonono. You do NOT have to format or reinstall windows. Before you switch to Intel, uninstall your Hard drive controller drivers. Then switch. After you have booted into windows on your intel board, just uninstall all of the amd drivers, and youll be set.
The Hard drive controller is what makes windows bluescreen when you switch motherboardds. Just google how to do it for your specific system.
Yea thats all you should have to do
I'd still say reformat and reinstall, you never know what may happen in the switch. Drivers might get funky, your system may start spazzing out for no apparent reason, and other weird things. It's possible to just switch mobos and CPUs and still be "fine" but its always safer to treat it as if you were building it for the first time and reformat.
it will probably boot fine, no prob.
But windows will throw its licence away if you are on the legal train. if not just ignore this. :-)