I finally dove into getting an X99 setup and I was wondering if anyone has had experience doing a BMR when upgrading the motherboard? Was it worth it? Would it be simply better to do a fresh install? Windows 8.1 deprecated the easy transfer so it's no longer possible to move settings, files, etc between computers.
If you still have Windows 8 or can get to the ISO. You can copy the migwiz folder (probably under support) to a USB drive and still run Easy Transfer manually. I just tried this on my Win 8.1 machine to copy my settings/files over to Win 10. Not all my settings transferred, but it definitely got all my files. My settings did eventually get synched when I connected my MS account.
Since your OS is Win8 I found it to be easily transferrable between different machines. Literally. I took an HDD with Win8 on a 2008 Core 2 moved it to a Core 1, booted fine, then over to Sandy Bridge and it booted fine. In each case it installed new hardware.
Of course, if you want to do that I do recommend uninstalling any specific video/accessory drivers that you know of that don't exist on the new machine prior, but I have yet to run into a blue screen or a boot into safe mode.
If your are interested in forcing a OOBE (Out-of-the-Box) experience which makes the OS hardware independent and cleans up you can run the following:
%windir%\System32\Sysprep\Sysprep.exe
SELECT: Enter System Out-of-Box-Experience (OOBE)
Check - GENERALIZE
Then boot up on the new hardware.