hardware upgrade - how to update ?

brazzmonkey · 2006-09-26 09:14:58

hi everyone,

as i told in some other thread, my mobo and PSU recently failed. so i took the opportunity to upgrade my faulty hardware. eventually i'll upgrade my system a bit more than i first planned sot there should be quite some changes involved. amongst them :

- mobo upgrade (via kt133 to nvidia nforce3 250)
- cpu upgrade (duron 1300 to athlon64 3700+)
- new sound device (sblive to 7.1 realtek integrated to mobo)
- new nic (i don't recall the specs)
- new memory (sdram pc133 to ddr pc3200)

(not really cutting-edge, but still...)

i never upgraded hardware since i've been using linux, but i expect a kernel recompilation should be sufficient (i mainly use a custom kernel). am i right ?

here are a few more questions :

- should this works properly ? i mean, i hope this hardware will be linux-compatible... if i boot a generic arch kernel, will it be able to detect all new hardware properly (wihtout further configuring) ?
- is there any point for me to switch to arch64 ? can i do this from an existing 32-bit installation ?
- should i enable smp ?
- any other stuff i should take care of ?

tia !

chrismortimore · 2006-09-26 09:40:52

brazzmonkey wrote:

i never upgraded hardware since i've been using linux, but i expect a kernel recompilation should be sufficient (i mainly use a custom kernel). am i right ?

Should do. You might need to change some hardware-dependant configs for software, like lm_sensors and possibly alsa, but nothing too taxing.

brazzmonkey wrote:

- should this works properly ? i mean, i hope this hardware will be linux-compatible... if i boot a generic arch kernel, will it be able to detect all new hardware properly (wihtout further configuring) ?

The arch kernel will do everything for you, it autodetects all your hardware on boot and Just Works (tm). At least it's meant to...

brazzmonkey wrote:

- is there any point for me to switch to arch64 ? can i do this from an existing 32-bit installation ?

Depends, I found 64bit isn't worth the hassle yet, because of things like win32codecs not working without a chroot environment, and browser plugin issues. Might be worth it for you though, I'm sure there is a wiki about it. And you'll need to reinstall.

brazzmonkey wrote:

- should i enable smp ?

No, you have a uni-core processor.

brazzmonkey wrote:

- any other stuff i should take care of ?

Well, I could go a sandwich just now....

brazzmonkey · 2006-09-26 09:59:40

chrismortimore wrote:

brazzmonkey wrote:
- should i enable smp ?
No, you have a uni-core processor.

oh, i though this amd hypertransport thing was just like intel's hyperthreading... looks like it's not actually.

thanks chrismortimore ! and bon appétit !

chrismortimore · 2006-09-26 10:03:15

This is hypertransport: http://www.x86-secret.com/pics/cpu/k8-2/httex.jpg
And don't even get me started on hyperthreading

brazzmonkey · 2006-09-26 10:21:42

i get error 403. what's wrong with hyperthreading ?

Snarkout · 2006-09-26 12:59:17

I upgraded from an athlon 3200+ to a pentium D 945 on Friday night, replacing (obviously) the mobo and a few other things as well. The only thing I did to prepare for this was remove my sensorsd stuff from rc.local and re-run sensors-detect when I rebooted. Everything else "Just Worked" without my input. Frankly I was amazed - I was expecting at least *some* hassle. I imagine your upgrade would be much the same, but do your backups just the same

chrismortimore · 2006-09-26 13:08:29

brazzmonkey wrote:

what's wrong with hyperthreading ?

I'll do the condensed rant

Basically, I found that instead of improving performance, it slowed everything down. I tweaked as much as I possibly could think of, and couldn't get it to behave, so gave up. Luckily it wasn't my box, it was a borrowed box, so not my problem

The image is from this page: http://www.x86-secret.com/articles/cpu/k8-2/a64-2.htm
I pointed you to the one at the bottom. Sadly, my french isn't good enough to understand the rest of the page...

brazzmonkey · 2006-09-26 13:24:45

alrighty then !
thanks both of you for your feedback. i should be ready by tomorrow evening if everything goes smoothly.

Arch Linux

#1 2006-09-26 09:14:58

hardware upgrade - how to update ?

#2 2006-09-26 09:40:52

Re: hardware upgrade - how to update ?

#3 2006-09-26 09:59:40

Re: hardware upgrade - how to update ?

#4 2006-09-26 10:03:15

Re: hardware upgrade - how to update ?

#5 2006-09-26 10:21:42

Re: hardware upgrade - how to update ?

#6 2006-09-26 12:59:17

Re: hardware upgrade - how to update ?

#7 2006-09-26 13:08:29

Re: hardware upgrade - how to update ?

#8 2006-09-26 13:24:45

Re: hardware upgrade - how to update ?

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