Thanks, @ Saltgrass: The motherboard is staying. It has been doing a great job with the i7-11700K and RTX 2070. I ran clock speeds of 5.2 (cores 1 and 3) with that board and my cooling system is aggressive. I have the mobo cooled with it as well.

The CPU and RTX 3080 upgrades are the last that this mobo will see. The future plans are for a 1700 or 2000 LGA build, but this Maximus XII is a Z490 chipset and a $500.00 board. It lived up to the punch that I expected of it. It's nothing to sneeze at and I'm only adding the i9-11900K and 3080 Ti because I came across a good deal on the two.

I have no doubt that I'll hold an easy 5.3GHz with the new CPU and that 3080 Ti should be a pretty good improvement over the 27070 Super I have.

@ DragDay7: Thanks for that tip. I didn't think the old CPU drivers would be there after I install the new one, but I'll check. Then again, you mentioned DDU so if you meant "GPU", I certainly do plan to remove the GPU drivers with DDU.

I just never can be sure if I should use DDU first, then shutdown, install the new GPU, and boot back up with the new drivers, or to use the DDU AFTER I install the new GPU card...

I don't think it matters either way, but I don't know. As for the change being done all at once, I think that's exactly what I'll do.
Thanks again,
Rich

Oh yes, I agree with you! I much prefer to clear as much crap out of the system as possible, though that habit has gotten me into trouble from time to time, LOL.

About a year ago, I became impatient while cleaning up bloatware. I got fed up with researching every little thing that I found in my system. Even though I didn't know what it did or if I even needed it, I deleted it with a payware shredder.

I forget what it all was, but as a result, I lost some data, (and I think I lost at least one very old, but good payware (or special payware-related tools), that was no longer available. I only recall that I very much regretted it. So, now I don't do anything of that nature when I'm in 'one of those moods'.

I'll let you know what I found and/or did when I get through. As it is, I still have a lot to do before I make the switch. I need to create restore points, run a full backup of my O/S drive, go back and read how to disassemble and disconnect my EKWB water-block and VRM Bridge.

( I have an EKWB EK-Quantum CPU block | EKWB EK-XTOP DDC 3.2 PWM Elite pump/ EK-Quantum Momentum VRM Bridge RGB version).

It's custom made for that specific motherboard by EKWB and I knew that it would be a pain to do something as simple as switching out CPUs, but it turned out to be well worth the hassle. Because I don't have to mess with it much once I installed it, I need to read up on it again to make sure I don't paint myself into a corner.

In other words, by the time I have it all switched out, (but not hooked up and running), it'll be well after midnight. I probably won't even reconnect the computer until I get some sleep and start after it again around 1 or 2 PM on 7-28-22.

Yes, I know... I'm slow at doing this but that's because I have another desktop right next to this one and it can pick up the slack until I have my 'big computer' up and running again.;)
Rich

geneo wrote:
You should be fine wit the already installed OS. If the chipset software recognizes an 11700 it will a 11900. You will need to update your BIOS settings though. Only driver you may have to deal with is the GPU, so as suggested, use DDU. I would have no hesitation doing both.

Oh, I see from your PC spec you have already done so! LOL

Yes, thank you for that! I'm working on it all now and I hope to have the process near done by tonight... I tend to back up (and take screenshots) of a lot of 'little things' when I do this so I can get back to the original system if something goes south. Not to mention creating restore points, and a full system backup while I'm at it.

It's an overkill, I know. But I had a bad experience once (a few years back) and if I had done these extra steps, I could have saved myself days of lost time.
Rich

I hope it doesn't! The last time that happened was when I had Windows 7 and I upgraded my system to an MSI mobo several years back. I had also upgraded the HDD O/S drive as well as the remaining HDD drives that I were installed, all to SSDs. The next thing I knew, Windows 7 claimed I was running a 'pirated software'.

I was able to reconfirm my Windows 7 using the telephone codes, (they don't offer that anymore). However, they refused to accept my codes for Office Pro 2010. The MS CS support people said they couldn't help me and I wound up buying Office all over again. I never buy pirated software but I've actually experienced going through that mess at least twice within a 3 year period.

It's strange because the other desktop I have typically gets all the hardware that I remove from this computer as I upgrade it. My other desktop has received very similar changes, (both desktops are Intel based/Windows 10 Pro x 64 systems), but even when the other one was still running Windows 7, I didn't lose the Windows 7 O/S or MS Office programs after upgrading the mobo, drives, Graphics card or RAM.

I'll cross my fingers. I still have the key and installation drive from Windows 10 as well as the MS Office installation media and keys. Frankly, I don't expect any issue because I don't boot to the OS from a PCIe device. I'm guessing, but I think the O/S issues may be more likely if I did boot from one. Still, I wouldn't bet against it, LOL.