Upgrading to a new motherboard

Jerkbot

(first off, my apologies if this should be in the PC build thread, but it is a pretty specific question, not a total PC rebuild)
Sup PA.
I'm (maybe) getting a new motherboard/processor/set of ram soon, and I've got a question about the mobo.

Am i correct in saying that, even if the motherboard includes drivers, if I try to just plug everything into it and go, i'll be fucked? 'Cause from what I've seen on the webs, the process will go something like this:
1 Backup a system image.
2. Format the hard drive.
3. Replace the board/processor/RAM.
4. Reinstall Windows 7 from the original upgrade disk.
5. Restore the hard drive to the system image.
Please correct me if my shitty research is wrong. Is the full format something I have to do? Can I even reinstall windows 7 again from the same disk? Will my computer ooze blood out of its disk drive?
I've already asked this in other places and have gotten a wide variety of answers. The general consensus seems to be that I have to format/reinstall. Halp.

TychoCelchuuu

Steps 1 and 5 need work. Don't back up an image, just back up your important data. In step 5, just restore the data. You're not going to get to bring over your Windows installation, and trying to do that will give you heartache. As for the rest, though, it's right: format, replace, reinstall. The original upgrade disk should work fine, although you may have to install twice in a row.

Djeet

You can usually do it, but there are usually benefits from a fresh install. Check out the thread over here where somebody asked a similar question. Stigweard's post kinda sums it up and I'll re-link the article I linked there.