Intel to Ryzen? Help plz

JoseMtz13

I currently have a i5-8600k and looking to switch to a Ryzen 7 3800x and was wondering what would be the complications/steps I would have to take to swap from Intel to Ryzen

PowerSpec_MikeW

Mainly consider that you're going to be swapping you motherboard and CPU. You're changing a lot about the system at that point. CPU, chipset, audio and network controllers. If you're doing a clean install, you won't have any problems at all. It'll be a typical build, just install your drivers. Since you're asking this though, I assume you're trying to keep your existing OS.

For that, Windows 10 is fairly good about halting your boot to install drivers for your new  hardware, so you'll generally be alright. The main thing that'll stop you in your tracks is if the storage controller mode changes, you're going to BSOD. So make sure that matches. Should default to AHCI, so it really shouldn't be an issue for you. And you can fix the storage controller mode by booting into safe mode once on Windows 10. Beyond that, just uninstall the old drivers for your Intel chipset, your audio controller. Anything that doesn't exist on the new system and then install the drivers for your new hardware.

You'll generally be fine, I would say that a clean install when you're changing this much about your system is highly preferred. One other thing I'll mention here when you're upgrading, take into account what memory you have. Zen 2 is very good with memory clocks and the infinity fabric clock is at 3600Mhz. Optimal RAM speed is 3600Mhz as as result. You can run it asynchronously, but you'll take a latency hit. 5ns, it's not a big deal, but if you're  upgrading to a Zen 2 CPU it's something to consider.