Hi everybody,
 
I'd love to update my motherboard and CPU at some point in the future.  When I do that, what's the likelihood of Windows 10 behaving, or would I likely need to reinstall things?
 
Thanks!
 
Donny

I am assuming that you are slready on Win10 and are going to just swap out the mb and processor. You might want to check with MS. I think the Win10 license is linked to your existing motherboard ID. 

There's some W10 stuff in this thread which might help to answer your question: http://forum.cakewalk.com/Computer-hardware-update-one-week-in-rambling-notes-m3543338.aspx
 

filtersweep
You might want to check with MS. I think the Win10 license is linked to your existing motherboard ID. 

That's the case for OEM licenses (definitely need to check with M$ if so) but should be fine to change the h/w otherwise.
 

I always do a clean install on a new system, and that is certainly the safest course, but there are many reports that people have been able to just swap out a motherboard and get a working system. The issue is that the drivers for specific motherboard and peripherals might not be available to your old Windows installation on the old hard drive. In many cases generic Windows drivers will work enough to boot, but RAID arrays etc. could be a problem. In the case that it does not boot, it might be possible to recover it by booting from a Windows installation disk and doing a repair install. If you fail to activate because the installation is tied to the old hardware ID hash, you could probably just buy a new product key from Microsoft and use that to activate the new installation. There are also stories about people being able to sweet talk Microsoft telephone activation representatives into activating systems that are not technically compliant with the license, but that is not guaranteed.

I recently (1st of Dec) upgraded my PC.  New everything except I reused my SSD (that has Win 10 OS and Sonar).  Win 10 booted without problems and automatically (it was on line) updated the drivers to the new hardware.  The only thing I had to do was re-authorize a couple of plug-ins.  I have the Win 10 "digital entitlement" so Win 10 was automatically activated.
 
I have a dual boot system, Win 10 Pro (production) and Win 10 Insider Preview version on a separate SSD.  The Preview version had no problems with the new hardware either.
 
I went from a Z77 motherboard and CPU to a Z170 motherboard and i7 6700K CPU.
 
All updates may not be as smooth as mine was.  
 

I followed Fireberd's advice and did a similar upgrade. Swapped out / updated the MB/RAM/CPU. After installation, Win10 booted up quickly. I too had a couple of licenses to reinstate, but not many. It was much faster and easier than I was braced for...  YMMV
 
 

@Donny, on a side topic I noticed you have the multiface ii. I get great results with mine and even though they were manufactured years ago, I find them to be top performers in sound quality with low low low latency.

musicroom
@Donny, on a side topic I noticed you have the multiface ii. I get great results with mine and even though they were manufactured years ago, I find them to be top performers in sound quality with low low low latency.

Hey, I'm glad you brought that up.  I've never really gotten really low latency with mine, but my eight year old computer may be the bottleneck...I'm not sure, but it seems like I should be getting better.
 
I've always been a little unclear on all this.  What are your thoughts on this picture above?  If I go faster than this my CPU runs pretty hard and I can't run very many VI's or plugins.  When I mix it's not a big deal because I run high latency there with no trouble, but tracking VI's is a bit of a strain on my box.  But I do love the RME Multiface.  I'd love to run it on more capable hardware.  Once I get some bills paid off I'm going to budget for an update.  But it's a small frustration...there's never been anything I've not been able to do that I actually needed on my machine.
 
I don't understand why there aren't more PCIe interfaces out there.  And my understanding is the PCIe interface on my Multiface II runs on the much older PCIe 1.1 standard, which is 250 MBps (emphasize Bytes there...not bits).
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express
 
Donny

I like mine. It's probably your PC just like for a time it was mine. I still have the older PCI version, but I now get stellar performance. I've used the MF II with both Intel Q9550 and i7-3770 cpu's. The difference in latency between those 2 chips is huge. With the Q9550 chip I could only use 64 buffer size when the project was at the 2-3 track stage. I could work comfortably with 12-20 tracks with a good assortment of plugs operating at 128 buffer size. At that point, I would start to see higher cpu use though. Once I got into the serious part of mixing the song or the track count started growing, I would typically do that at 256 or 512 buffer size. All in all, that worked for me with few complaints.
 
Once I upgraded to the i7, that all changed. I can now take a large project of 50+ tracks with ample use of plugins and easily operate at 64 buffer size. No need to change the buffer size during the different stages of the project. I like that a lot! I was actually able to play this same large project without artifacts at 32 buffer. The cpu usage was hovering around 60%. I typically just leave it set to 64.

If you are already running Windows 10, and have the correct drivers installed for your audio hardware setup, the motherboard and CPU change should not upset the OS.
 
I have not tried this yet, but have heard reports that Windows 10 has a newer method of abstracting hardware, where the motherboard and chipset changes are taken in stride now.  Where in past versions,  it used to take a sysprep or a repair install to get the OS working on the new hardware, it should no longer be necessary.
 
The digital entitlement for the Win 10 license should still be good as well.