[ale] upgrading desktop

Mon Aug 3 07:58:58 EDT 2020

Oops.  Apparently the bug was in Ryzen 3 bios, not 3rd gen Threadripper.
My bad.

On Mon, Aug 3, 2020 at 7:51 AM David Jackson <deepbsd.ale at gmail.com> wrote:

> >Earlier I heard Ryzen wasn't totally compatible with Linux. Have those
> >issues been solved?
>
> I think you might be talking about Threadripper here.   AMD currently has
> two CPU product divisions: Ryzen (think Intel Core i-(3,5,7,9)) and
> Threadripper (think Intel Xeon).  Their most recent Threadripper release
> and motherboard bios spec had some undocumented bugs that gave certain
> Linux installers (like Ubuntu's Ubiquity) some big problems.  The installer
> would complete and the installed system would be unbootable.  I don't own a
> 3rd-Gen Threadripper (they're quite pricey) so I didn't experience any of
> this rodeo and have only heard about it 3rd-hand.
>
> In this video (actually an audio interview):
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jvlc34BpIX0
>
> Jay La Croix interviews Jeremy Soller at System76 about how PopOS is not
> "just another Ubuntu" implementation.  In this conversation Jay and Jeremy
> talk about how this low level incompatibility caused some serious
> heartburn, but also how PopOS was able to get a fix into the installation
> ISO more quickly than other distros.  This is an hour-long interview, but
> if you start at 04:10 you can jump past some of the channel's housekeeping
> and get into the particulars of the problem as explained by Jeremy.  Or if
> it seems interesting, start at the beginning and listen until life intrudes
> and you must break.  Other than this, I'm not aware of any
> compatibility issues with Linux.
>
> On Mon, Aug 3, 2020 at 5:31 AM Steve Litt via Ale <ale at ale.org> wrote:
>
>> On Sun, 2 Aug 2020 22:45:14 -0400
>> David Jackson via Ale <ale at ale.org> wrote:
>>
>> > I tend to build a lot of systems, so my perspective is influenced by
>> > this bias.  But I'm unclear about your priorities.
>> >
>> > If you were doing something demanding (say rendering videos or doing
>> > heavy computation or competitive gaming or whatever), you would be
>> > well beyond a 3rd gen i5 cpu.  Since 3rd gen Intel level of tech
>> > seems to suit you fine, it seems to me your performance requirements
>> > are rather low.  Another thing I'm curious about is how much change
>> > are you willing to tolerate.  Would a lot of added performance be a
>> > bad thing or a good thing?
>> >
>> > I think you might be missing how easy it would be to get a *massive*
>> > performance upgrade with a relatively slight effort or cost by
>> > upgrading all your whole architecture.
>>
>> The OP can get improved performance by buying a $50 SSD. Perhaps
>> he'll need to buy a $25 PCIe to 4xSATA converter.
>>
>> The minute he buys a better processor (probably over $100, he needs to
>> buy a new mobo (probably over $80), and all new RAM (about $400 to do
>> things right, as opposed to slightly improving what he has right now),
>> as well as the SSD he's contemplating. He might need a new power
>> supply. Probably new fan connectors and gender benders. If the
>> processor runs hotter, he'll need more and bigger fans.
>>
>> He already has enough power to author computer programs, write 300 page
>> documents, and use his computer as a voluminous and well organized
>> filing cabinet. For $50 to $75 he can make it a fair amount faster,
>> which is fine if he closes browser tabs when he's done with them, isn't
>> a gamer, and doesn't do frequent audio or video processing.
>>
>> Even if he decides he needs huge power and goes for a new system, using
>> his current system as a spare or server or whatever and equipping it
>> with an SSD is very cost effective.
>>
>> > A LOT has changed since 3rd
>> > gen Intel was current.  For about the cost in difficulty and dollars
>> > in upgrading your 3rd gen architecture, you could probably find a
>> > more current Ryzen system that would give this massive upgrade.
>> > What has changed a lot very recently is that AMD Ryzen normally beats
>> > Intel in terms of performance per dollar (bang for the buck)
>> > nowadays.  (I'm trying to keep it simple here.) And the surrounding
>> > architecture has massively improved as well.  Current gen platforms
>> > are much more efficient and performant overall than a 3rd gen i5 was.
>>
>> The preceding is what I contemplate doing in the next year or two. The
>> insane bloat of youtube-capable browsers, plus the fact that you pretty
>> much need Firefox or Chromium (probably both) to participate in today's
>> world and job market mean that eventually I'll need to combat the bloat
>> with raw power, even though my current six year old dual core  AMD
>> A6-6400K with 16GB six year old RAM with several TB of spinning rust
>> and 128GB of SSD mounted as / and an Openbox WM performs outstandingly
>> when browsers aren't gumming up the system.
>>
>> [snip]
>>
>> >
>> > I tend to think the most "bang for the buck" system today (in my mind)
>> > would be a B450 motherboard with a Ryzen 5 3600, 16G RAM at about
>> > 3200 or faster, and I would go for an NVMe M.2 SSD at around 500G.
>> > You can use a cheap video card (about $35) and the case and power
>> > supply as your budget and preference dictates.  Power supplies and
>> > cases are a bit more expensive these days, thanks to COVID-challenged
>> > supplies, but memory, ssd's and CPUs are relatively cheap.  This
>> > system would cost you about $550-600 or so, depending on your
>> > choices.  One example:
>> > https://pcpartpicker.com/user/deepbsd/saved/#view=6tqG3C I wager this
>> > system would make you grin each time you sit down at your PC. I'd
>> > also wager that the "grin factor" would quickly offset the dollar
>> > damage.
>>
>> I'll be keeping the preceding paragraph as advice for when I build my
>> next system, which shouldn't be too much longer. Of course, I
>> already have 16 GB RAM, so I'll get either 32 or 64GB. I'll
>> probably also boost my disk space to something exceeding 10TB.
>>
>> Earlier I heard Ryzen wasn't totally compatible with Linux. Have those
>> issues been solved?
>>
>> SteveT
>> _______________________________________________
>> Ale mailing list
>> Ale at ale.org
>> https://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
>> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://mail.ale.org/pipermail/ale/attachments/20200803/2ddd70b1/attachment.html>