Upgrading from Intel to AMD, what should I change in my system?

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1

I’m thinking of upgrading my 10 year PC from Intel to AMD Ryzen (haven’t decided on which processor yet) What should I change in my system to make it fully compatible with AMD? I really don’t want to do a fresh install, here’s some info:

[manjaro@manjaro ~]$ inxi -F
System:    Host: manjaro Kernel: 5.4.142-1-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: i3 4.19.1 Distro: Manjaro Linux 
Machine:   Type: Desktop Mobo: ASRock model: H71M-DGS serial: <superuser required> BIOS: American Megatrends v: P1.50 
           date: 01/31/2013 
CPU:       Info: Quad Core model: Intel Core i5-3470 bits: 64 type: MCP cache: L2: 6 MiB 
           Speed: 1597 MHz min/max: 1600/3600 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1597 2: 1597 3: 1597 4: 1597 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel Xeon E3-1200 v2/3rd Gen Core processor Graphics driver: i915 v: kernel 
           Display: x11 server: X.org 1.20.13 driver: loaded: modesetting resolution: <missing: xdpyinfo> 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 2500 (IVB GT1) v: 4.2 Mesa 21.2.1 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Family High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel 
           Device-2: SAVITECH FiiO USB DAC K1 type: USB driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid 
           Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.4.142-1-MANJARO running: yes 
           Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.0 running: yes 
Network:   Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet driver: r8169 
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: bc:5f:f4:ba:39:b8 
           Device-2: Realtek RTL8188EUS 802.11n Wireless Network Adapter type: USB driver: r8188eu 
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: 98:de:d0:18:23:0a 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 465.76 GiB used: 149.74 GiB (32.1%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Western Digital model: WD5000AZLX-60K2TA0 size: 465.76 GiB 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 200.72 GiB used: 41.27 GiB (20.6%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda5 
Swap:      ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 255 MiB used: 53.8 MiB (21.1%) dev: /dev/sda7 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 35.0 C mobo: 37.0 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): fan-1: 0 fan-2: 2295 fan-3: 0 fan-4: 0 fan-5: 0 
Info:      Processes: 218 Uptime: 21d 19h 22m Memory: 7.48 GiB used: 4.57 GiB (61.0%) Shell: Bash inxi: 3.3.06
2

you will have to change

  • amd-ucode
  • maybe video card drivers ( dpends on free or no free drivers )
  • if you copy on new nvme - SSD , update UUID and restore GRUB
  • see boot options kernels ( inxi -Fxa)
  • always Backup before
3

I’d be willing to bet that your CPU socket is not drop-in AMD processor compatible.

4

Hi, I just did this myself, more or less, swapping out a very old motherboard/cpu from 2009.

I think the specific parts you need to change will depend a lot on the mobo/cpu you choose. For example, I bought a Asus tough gaming 570x pro (wifi). That came with good sound and a wifi connection so I didn’t have to worry about some components. I did have to choose a CPU that was compatible, and buy new memory because my old motherboard also used old-style (DDR3) memory. Since I had upgraded my GPU some years back and bought one that was compatible with both intel and AMD, I did not have to deal with that nightmare.

When I was doing this, I found the website pcpartpicker to be incredibly useful, since they have a feature that lets you create a virtual computer build and it tells you if your parts are compatible. There are also a lot of reviews on various parts from users, which might be helpful.

Good luck!

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