Currently running 64-bit openSUSE 11.4 on elderly and increasingly flaky ASUS mobo with Core2Duo CPU and Nvidia 8600GT video card. Want to buy new mobo and would appreciate any advice as to whether to go the AMD or Intel route. Which of the following two combos do people here think will give me less trouble with 11.4:
A. AMD3 board (880 or 890 chipset) with Phenom x4 CPU, using integrated Radeon graphics.
B. Intel board (1156 socket) with Core i3 CPU (and appropriate mobo chipset, forgot the numbers), using integrated Intel graphics (Sandy Bridge I think).
From what I’ve picked up here and there in the forum and on Google, the Intel graphics are more likely to throw up issues than the Radeon. Is that right? If so, I might go the AMD route as performance appears to be broadly comparable.
Any thoughts, anyone?
So I do think going Intel is the way to go and Sandy Bridge is a very good CPU, but the graphics seem just a little bit ahead of the Linux curve so far. I did try the Sandy Bridge graphics with a i7 2600K CPU and it worked, but choked on some openGL stuff so I just popped in an nVIDIA 550 Ti board and all is working just fine. The motherboard I have is an ASUS P8P67 board with the B3 stepping (it has the Intel chipset fix). What I like is the memory only needs to be installed in two’s or four’s, like the i7 8xx series. The i7 2600K was selling for $315 US (but I saw one deal for $250 this last week) as opposed to $275 for an Intel i7 870 and the motherboard was $150 US. A typical kernel compile on a i7 870 takes 13 minutes while I can do it in 9 minutes on the i7 2600K and the ASUS motherboard so it is fast and a bargain. Compare that to a 28 minute kernel compile on an Intel Q6600 for reference. However, the Graphics may disappoint at first in Linux until the software has become more mature. One thing is for sure, you can try the built-in graphics first and always buy an add in video card later.
Thank You,
Thanks for that, leaning towards Intel route now. But I’m puzzled because you mention your P67 chipset mbo, thought P67 disables the integrated video and requires a discrete video card, and H67 was the way to go to use the Intel HD graphics?
The reason I asked this question in the first place is that I was half expecting someone to say “go AMD because the built-in Radeon graphics are better supported under Linux”. Nobody has popped up to say that, so I’ll probably go for an MSI H67 mobo with the Intel Core i3 later this week, unless someone warns me off…
Thanks for that, leaning towards Intel route now. But I’m puzzled because you mention your P67 chipset mbo, thought P67 disables the integrated video and requires a discrete video card, and H67 was the way to go to use the Intel HD graphics?
The reason I asked this question in the first place is that I was half expecting someone to say “go AMD because the built-in Radeon graphics are better supported under Linux”. Nobody has popped up to say that, so I’ll probably go for an MSI H67 mobo with the Intel Core i3 later this week, unless someone warns me off…
Apologies for double post. No idea how that happened…
OK, awaiting delivery of Intel H67 mobo and Intel Core i3 CPU plus requisite RAM sticks any day now… Once installed, what trouble can I expect on my first boot from the old installation using Nouveau graphics driver? No GUI boot, I expect, so am I right in assuming that I have to blacklist the nouveau driver before the default Intel driver kicks in? Or should I simply reinstall openSUSE, as my /home resides on a separate partition anyway? Or boot from the DVD and do a “repair installation”?
Heve never switched mobo and video on an existing installation before…
I have my NVIDIA 8600GT from the current system but am planning to try to run with the Intel video on the CPU, just to see how it goes. If needed, I can always plug in the NVIDIA (which I’ve used since the launch of 11.4 without proprietary blob, Nouveau has turned out fine for that).