Upgrade Rejection

[Jusmar]

I built a gaming PC a few years ago for Christmas and now It's beginning to show it's age through my GPU and RAM. If I were to change the amount of ram and model of GPU would Windows have a conniption about the change and void my license?

[Obsidian]

RAM, no. GPU, possibly. I know from working with test benches, testing graphic and CPU configurations, that Windows will usually be fine unless you do a motherboard swap. However, I have seen Windows invalidate itself because too much hardware has been used with a single license, so it thinks you're using the license on different machines, when you're using it on the same machine with a minor upgrade. From that, it's possible that it will invalidate itself, but it shouldn't void it since the Windows 7 OEM license identifies the system based on the motherboard, or so that's what my mentors told me.

 

That being said, you should be fine on both fronts.

 

If it does, you can always call Microsoft to get your license revalidated or go another route to activate windows. I actually had to call Microsoft to get my student edition of Office activated, and aside from the thick accent, the process there was painless. I imagine it'd be even easier to validate a Windows license.

[Jusmar]

Okay that's good to know. I've still got the case for the disk an all the codes and what not, so I think that'll be fine. Thank you very much.

[Jusmar]

Okay, I've looked into it, and I've been recommended by people on PCmech To look into just using 1 matched set of RAM. Anyone familiar with G Skill?

[BTGBullseye]

G-Skill may be the best, the worst or anywhere in between... It all depends on what type and speed of RAM your motherboard supports, and what your price range is for the upgrade.

 

Usually there are other brands of RAM that are slightly better, and slightly worse, all with slightly different prices, and some have a higher fail rate than others that look identical... No brand has identical fail rates across all their RAM.