Well, that's the main aim here. Either that or 1) get a new PC (no option...yet) or 2) no play, I'd like to save some cash and reduce the Grand LandFill with at least one pc, so I'll try to extent the lifespan of the one I got...

@ Wim, no sweat, I verified at the retailers, it's a PCI, but, to be on the safe side, I'll open the box and check...tomorrow...the card has arrived...

By the way, any benchmarks I can run? GLXgears gives me some 83-and-small-change worth of frames per second...

GLXgears is in no way a benchmark. Run a few games that show you the FPS and then compare.
Even if you get a new PC I wouldn't discard the old one. You can at least do several things with that, like building a little file-server, a torrent box, a small web server, ..., eventually with downclocking/-volting the CPU to save energy.
Can be a testbed for different funny things.

Well, the thing started out planned to be a print/IceCast server, but my previous one...could only handle 80Gb worth of drive...so, the plan got changed/frozen in...

A recent benchmark for graphics is:
http://unigine.com/products/heaven/download/

I'm not sure the intel card could even run it tho. Instead maybe try:
http://www.phoronix-test-suite.com/i...hp?k=downloads

Cool...but, let's see if I can get tru the following task list first

- make a backup (check)
- make a backup of /etc/X11 (check)
- go get the card
- verify it's a PCI before I dish out the cash
- set inittab to init 3
- install the thing
- get the drivers - I'll try the repo of my distro first...there is need for kernel interfaces that need compiling, better be safe here
- reboot
- login as the regular user
- issue "startx"
- take some Valiums
- ???

Crossing my fingers...

Thor

I doubt that you will have any problems, I never had any with NVidia and Arch.

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Thanks! Well, I'll know within some 24 hours, or less!

But...it's a great opportunity to just make a backup...take a plunge and learn something.

Linux...did I mention I love Linux? Here's that warm feeling again...

What do you mean? You are aware that Linux does not really have the limitation?
The bios on a system that I gave away recently had the infamous 32GB limit. Added a 80GB in that system, bios does not recognize it but Slackware did not have an issue using it.

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Okay, now, THIS is interesting. What would, for example, happening at install? I assume Parted and C° would'nt even mind. Indeed, the BIOS does not "understand" anything beyond 80Gb, too bad, because it was a qute little box (...come to think of it... WITH AGP ! argh!!! Oh well, the current box is faster anyway and has a SATA drive, and more memory...) which was the reason to sidetrack it as a recording studio.

Okay....this is cool news! Thanks, Wim!!!

8400GS, I've used a few. Mostly they are cheap and fairly nasty, but they work.

I havent used a PCI version myself, just PCIe. From what I've seen the PCI versions are just as cheap and nasty as the PCIe versions, but you havent got much choice with PCI cards these days.

From the benchmarks TobiSGD posted? They have little and possibly no relation to what Thor 2.0 would get...

The test is using a PCIe 8400GS, not PCI. CS:source is also quite CPU bound, and the test is using a slow Atom 330.

The only really good way to compare IMO.

Who really cares about some dinky benchmarks when you can test reality.

Nasty as in ... config wise? Frankly,
...this will really be the best way: just fire up something and see what gives...

Well, sometimes reading helps.
But besides that you are of course right. I only posted that because it was the only benchmark I could find at all for a PCI version of the 8400GS. Says nothing about Thor's machine, just posted out of curiosity.

What was the excuse you used recently? Tired, that was it...yeah! I'm tired. I only just woke up when I posted that LOL.

I actually stuffed up, I read the GPU-Z and Everest info and saw PCIe. I forgot that it would have been using a PCIe to PCI bridge.

'Nasty' as in thin boards, rather lame heatsinks with a 'rush job' feeling to how the heatsink is attached, poor fit and finish, etc..

BTW, make sure that your PCI card has the half-height backplates in the box. They can be a right pain to track down if they arent in the packaging, and making one is even less fun.

The requirement that I'm aware off is that the BIOS must be able to recognize one HD to boot from. The rest does not matter.
In my case, I screwed up the original HD (15GB) and replaced it with a 2GB and the 80GB. Slackware recognized both, I put the boot on the 2GB (that was detected by the BIOS) and the rest of the system on the 80GB and was ready to go.

As said, I gave the system away recently (actually I sold it for a small fee) and somebody tried to get XP installed. If I recall correctly, they managed to get some 'lite' version installed but were never able to access the 80GB disk. Got it back for free

Well,

It's official...I should mark this thread a solved...because there's no solution...

For crying out loud...the card does'nt fit...

Too bad.

@ Wim

Now that's what I call: good trading! Anything you could do for the current economical situation

However, the trick is good, I could use that on an other box, the one I refered to is a small-form, only space for one drive. As a side note: avoid small-forms if possible...

Thor