Advance considerations

Roken · 2014-06-16 19:21:24

Right now, I run Arch exclusively on an AMD Phenom 965 X4, with an ATI gfx card, DDR2 RAM and a suitable MB.

In the next couple of weeks I'm planning a rebuild to Intel I7 (K series), NVidia card (possibly 750 or 760) and, of course, MB and DDR3.

Using stock kernel, apart from removing fglrx, are there any other considerations I need to be thinking about in order to keep my OS intact?

headkase · 2014-06-16 19:41:00

As a point to consider: nVidia will be releasing their 800 series (Maxwell Architecture) of cards in late 2014 or early 2015. Early looks at them, with the 750 Ti being a released example, indicate that the 800 series is going to rock. I actually built a new rig recently and the only part I kept in it was an old Radeon 6870. I'm waiting for the 800 series to be released and then that will make my new computer "complete." Would you consider the same? Keep your Ati for now and get a 800 on release?

karol · 2014-06-16 19:46:45

What are you going to use your computer for?

Roken · 2014-06-16 22:53:32

@ headkase
I would consider keeping my current card, but it's holding me back. I used to have an HD 6670, which was happy with the latest drivers, but it died, forcing me back to a 4670, using legacy drivers and forcing a downgrade of xorg etc. Whilst I'd like to keep costs to a minimum, this is a driver for a GPU upgrade, amongst other reasons

@karol
Apart from day to day use, I do a lot of 3D graphics and video editing. The additional CPU grunt is for the rendering, but that notwithstanding, switching graphics platforms to NV will give me access to CUDA and H/W rendering, which will speed the process up much more than a CPU upgrade alone will. I'm going to have the cash to spend in two weeks, and may as well make the best of what I can whilst I can, before I drink it.

progandy · 2014-06-16 23:05:07

Roken wrote:

Using stock kernel, apart from removing fglrx, are there any other considerations I need to be thinking about in order to keep my OS intact?

Make sure you have the base packages and the necessary drivers for your network interfaces installed. If you did remove your fallback-initramfs, then recreate it before your switch your hardware (and add a bootloader entry). After the switch, boot with the fallback option and recreate your initramfs. You should be able to boot to the console even if the graphics drivers don't match (maybe set systemd.unit=multi-user.target in your kernel command line to avoid starting X)

headkase · 2014-06-16 23:26:45

Roken wrote:

@ headkase
I would consider keeping my current card, but it's holding me back. I used to have an HD 6670, which was happy with the latest drivers, but it died, forcing me back to a 4670, using legacy drivers and forcing a downgrade of xorg etc. Whilst I'd like to keep costs to a minimum, this is a driver for a GPU upgrade, amongst other reasons

You can also do what I did for my Arch machine: I phoned a local computer shop and said "what is the cheapest video card you just have lying around?" They had a nVidia GT 620 w/2GB laying around from another customers upgrade. I bought it for $17, yes $17, from them. If you could work out a similar deal then you could purchase a cheap stop-gap video card until the 800 series comes online. (My Windows machine has all the good hardware because it is for games, my Arch machine has decent hardware too )

Arch Linux

#1 2014-06-16 19:21:24

Advance considerations

#2 2014-06-16 19:41:00

Re: Advance considerations

#3 2014-06-16 19:46:45

Re: Advance considerations

#4 2014-06-16 22:53:32

Re: Advance considerations

#5 2014-06-16 23:05:07

Re: Advance considerations

#6 2014-06-16 23:26:45

Re: Advance considerations

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