Should i switch to linux? please tell me why or why not.
-
Your choices:
- buy a new PC with Windows 11
- move to linux with your current PC
- stay with Windows 10 on your current PC, and take the risk of using an insecure system.
You missed one:
- build/buy a new PC and put Linux on it
-
Lots of mention of dual booting- I recommend getting an e-waste tier 256gb SATA SSD for your first Linux install if you just want to try it out.
No one wants those old drives because they are small but they are plenty quick and you only need 15 to 30 gigs for most distros.
I picked up a Samsung m.2 280 or 260 gb guy on eBay for like ten bucks. I don't remember the size exactly, just that it wasn't the normal binary 256gb.
-
So i have a gaming desktop that not the best or the newest. What takes up most of my drive space is games, updates, and software's. Im wondering if i should switch to linux and if linux will improve any performance for my main machine? If you believe i should switch what os should i go with or why or why not should i switch?
I mostly game and do mess with ollama/ai tools because i think that's cool. I want to do more things in the future but that might beyond my drive space?
What would you advise?
wrote last edited by [email protected]CachyOS might get you some modest performance gains on that hardware*edit, see reply
I have a similar usecase w/ games and ollama, good support for that on linux
-
Third this move. Nvme are under $20 cheap way to experiment
Everyone manages to format the wrong partition at least once when starting out with installing different Linux distros.
-
You missed one:
- build/buy a new PC and put Linux on it
Could be the same as option 1 using dual boot.
-
Everyone manages to format the wrong partition at least once when starting out with installing different Linux distros.
I haven't. That wasn't one of the mistakes I made!
-
I picked up a Samsung m.2 280 or 260 gb guy on eBay for like ten bucks. I don't remember the size exactly, just that it wasn't the normal binary 256gb.
They sell 250 on 256 and 500 on 512, holding back the 6/12 gigs for wear leveling and other NAND management functions. At least that's what I understand.
-
64 GB DDR3, interesting. That's a lot for that old tech.
It's a Xeon, workstation and server CPU, so made to take a lot of RAM, 4 memory channels.
-
So i have a gaming desktop that not the best or the newest. What takes up most of my drive space is games, updates, and software's. Im wondering if i should switch to linux and if linux will improve any performance for my main machine? If you believe i should switch what os should i go with or why or why not should i switch?
I mostly game and do mess with ollama/ai tools because i think that's cool. I want to do more things in the future but that might beyond my drive space?
What would you advise?
Other people have given you good responses about switching so I'll give some distro recommendations:
- Bazzite. This is what I use on fairly similar hardware. Looks like you've got a v1 or v2 chip as it's still DDR3, I'm on an E5-2680v2 and it works great under Linux while Windows 10 just caused it to freeze up so much by the end. All the background updates and indexing and whatever else were such resource hogs. The NVIDIA Bazzite iso also includes the official drivers out of the box, which many other distros don't (looking at you Linux Mint!!). It's designed to be super easy for gamers newly switching from Windows, with Steam pre-installed and everything just ready to go.
- CachyOS. I don't have personal experience with it, but I know it also includes the official NVIDIA drivers out of the box, and it's designed as a gaming distro first and foremost as well.
- Nobara. Another gaming distro, it also includes the NVIDIA drivers and is ready to go. It's made by a dev known as Glorious Eggroll who is well respected in the linux gaming community.
The reason I recommend distros that have the official NVIDIA drivers OOTB is that they work much, much better than the Noveau open source driver that most traditional distros (Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora) include. The offical drivers also have a steep learning curve for a new Linux user to install themselves, it's nowhere near as simple as installing them on Windows.
-
CachyOS might get you some modest performance gains on that hardware*edit, see reply
I have a similar usecase w/ games and ollama, good support for that on linux
Sandy Bridge is too old for CachyOS. Cachy compiles the kernel with optimizations for newer CPUs
-
Other people have given you good responses about switching so I'll give some distro recommendations:
- Bazzite. This is what I use on fairly similar hardware. Looks like you've got a v1 or v2 chip as it's still DDR3, I'm on an E5-2680v2 and it works great under Linux while Windows 10 just caused it to freeze up so much by the end. All the background updates and indexing and whatever else were such resource hogs. The NVIDIA Bazzite iso also includes the official drivers out of the box, which many other distros don't (looking at you Linux Mint!!). It's designed to be super easy for gamers newly switching from Windows, with Steam pre-installed and everything just ready to go.
- CachyOS. I don't have personal experience with it, but I know it also includes the official NVIDIA drivers out of the box, and it's designed as a gaming distro first and foremost as well.
- Nobara. Another gaming distro, it also includes the NVIDIA drivers and is ready to go. It's made by a dev known as Glorious Eggroll who is well respected in the linux gaming community.
The reason I recommend distros that have the official NVIDIA drivers OOTB is that they work much, much better than the Noveau open source driver that most traditional distros (Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora) include. The offical drivers also have a steep learning curve for a new Linux user to install themselves, it's nowhere near as simple as installing them on Windows.
Sandy Bridge is too old for CachyOS. Cachy compiles the kernel with optimizations for newer CPUs
-
Sandy Bridge is too old for CachyOS. Cachy compiles the kernel with optimizations for newer CPUs
If you look at recommended requirements on that page, it suggests the x86_v3 but minimum doesn't. It's a little confusing but the following section seems to just be explaining that term for the recommended level? If I'm wrong though I'll gladly cross it out.
-
Sandy Bridge is too old for CachyOS. Cachy compiles the kernel with optimizations for newer CPUs
Wrong, I'm running a sandy bridge on cachyos right now
-
So i have a gaming desktop that not the best or the newest. What takes up most of my drive space is games, updates, and software's. Im wondering if i should switch to linux and if linux will improve any performance for my main machine? If you believe i should switch what os should i go with or why or why not should i switch?
I mostly game and do mess with ollama/ai tools because i think that's cool. I want to do more things in the future but that might beyond my drive space?
What would you advise?
wrote last edited by [email protected]As long as you back up your data, experiment to find what you want. If you have an empty spare drive, try out the different options there.
It's been a month since I moved to Bazzite. My plan was to try Mint and Bazzite while also keeping a Windows 10 ISO in my boot drive (Ventoy will allow you to have as many ISO in your USB stick). If things get too difficult, I could always go back to Windows 10. But using Bazzite has been a breeze, I decided I didn't even need Mint. Every time I think I need to open up the terminal for any issues, I find that the solution doesn't require it. -
Other people have given you good responses about switching so I'll give some distro recommendations:
- Bazzite. This is what I use on fairly similar hardware. Looks like you've got a v1 or v2 chip as it's still DDR3, I'm on an E5-2680v2 and it works great under Linux while Windows 10 just caused it to freeze up so much by the end. All the background updates and indexing and whatever else were such resource hogs. The NVIDIA Bazzite iso also includes the official drivers out of the box, which many other distros don't (looking at you Linux Mint!!). It's designed to be super easy for gamers newly switching from Windows, with Steam pre-installed and everything just ready to go.
- CachyOS. I don't have personal experience with it, but I know it also includes the official NVIDIA drivers out of the box, and it's designed as a gaming distro first and foremost as well.
- Nobara. Another gaming distro, it also includes the NVIDIA drivers and is ready to go. It's made by a dev known as Glorious Eggroll who is well respected in the linux gaming community.
The reason I recommend distros that have the official NVIDIA drivers OOTB is that they work much, much better than the Noveau open source driver that most traditional distros (Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora) include. The offical drivers also have a steep learning curve for a new Linux user to install themselves, it's nowhere near as simple as installing them on Windows.
I like bazzite but the immutable aspect makes downloading some thing even more complicated for a newb. Truly can never go wrong with zorinos or mint
-
It's a Xeon, workstation and server CPU, so made to take a lot of RAM, 4 memory channels.
Still a lot for that old tech and a desktop gaming computer.
For a server, it's not a lot.
-
Lots of mention of dual booting- I recommend getting an e-waste tier 256gb SATA SSD for your first Linux install if you just want to try it out.
No one wants those old drives because they are small but they are plenty quick and you only need 15 to 30 gigs for most distros.
Can you use the existing Windows partition for the games though (without it fucking them up)? Because while Linux fits in that easily, games do not.
-
Still a lot for that old tech and a desktop gaming computer.
For a server, it's not a lot.
Yeah but why wouldn't you when sticks are so cheap now? I have an E5-2680v2 and 32GB of RAM. I can have SO many browser tabs open, and games actually run quicker because Linux does a really good job of using excess RAM as file cache. If a game accesses a texture more than once it almost always ends up in cache. I probably will upgrade to 64GB at some point, because I've got two 16GB sticks so only using half the memory channels. Wanna get an E5-2697v2 first though, much better single core performance.
-
I like bazzite but the immutable aspect makes downloading some thing even more complicated for a newb. Truly can never go wrong with zorinos or mint
I've been using Linux for 25 years and I kinda hate how clunky immutable Fedora is.
-
So i have a gaming desktop that not the best or the newest. What takes up most of my drive space is games, updates, and software's. Im wondering if i should switch to linux and if linux will improve any performance for my main machine? If you believe i should switch what os should i go with or why or why not should i switch?
I mostly game and do mess with ollama/ai tools because i think that's cool. I want to do more things in the future but that might beyond my drive space?
What would you advise?
Nvidia is a bit of a risk under Linux. It might work.
