You absolutely positively will need to reinstall windows if your new mobo is different in a significant way from your old one.
your assuming he is upgrading from an old motherboard, but just like I am assuming he is not... I should have been a little more prudent in my response to this and stated that the worse that could happen would be a reinstall. But not an absolute must... it’s all relative to what he has and since I am not at his house... I can only assume.
Besides... Your statement is not actually true... I had a hard drive in a HP with an Intel board and CPU, with on board graphics and I moved that hard drive to a computer running AMD board and CPU and it booted fine... ask for disk to install drivers... Slapped in the mobo CD and it was good to go. Though, I have to admit I felt that there was some instability issues and ended up reinstalling OS anyways, but I cannot say the fresh install is a must for operation, though I agree it’s a must beyond that.
The water cooler recommendations are nonsense
I beg to differ
It will not extend the life of your CPU in any notable way.
ummm excuse me... notable... maybe not... but first things first, heat ruins electronics... so keeping it cooler will make it last longer.. this is known by all normal people.... second... if you notice the rig he is buying is for gaming not jerkin off on the internet (judging by the motherboard and the video card were discussing then I have to assume were talking gaming rig) so yes the better the cooler the better the performance on the machine... stock coolers SUCK. And since he is gaming with it then the better the cooler the better the performance... if you know anything about gaming and computers you would agree...
Third, so, if you’re going to use the machine for gaming, then yes get something better than the stock cooler. And another reason for the water cooler is that they are very cheap now... and very easy to maintain... No different than an air cooler for the CPU, so why not get the better.
to claim something like it would toast a graphics card from a spill is about 5 years out of date.
this is because liquid cooling has finally come down in price for normal users to start using it and they are afraid of it... liquid cooling will be the future for all PC's... the cost needs to come down a bit more for everyone to start using it...
Does making a CPU run one degree hotter shorten its life by one year? By two?
actually, my cpu runs nearly 10 to 15 degrees cooler than it does with an air cooler... and when you are in the middle of the game and your keeping your cpu below 70C during peak cpu usage... compared to many air coolers that don't...
the hotter the cpu the slower it works and when you are talking about slow during a game it does make a difference in performance...
One frame too slow and its game over, and temprature can make that difference.
Now does it really make it last longer, I agree, I don't think it really matters because ... yes, you will be replacing the CPU in most case long before the CPU call it quits... but hey the cooler it is the longer it last... there is no argument against it... heat kills electronics.. That’s a fact...
All in all, there is no bad advice being posted here... Just different opinions...