I'm thinking about making the switch from Windows to Linux, but I still want to keep the option to run Windows for specific programs like Zbrush and some games that have anti-cheat requirements which aren't compatible with Linux. My computer is mostly for gaming, along with some 3D and 2D art and photography tasks.
I've read up a bit on dual booting and I'm trying to decide what setup would work best for me: should I use two separate SSDs for Windows and Linux, or is it better to get a single larger SSD and partition it? I have an old SSD from my laptop that I could use temporarily until I get a decent new drive, like a WD Black. My system specs include a 7950x3d CPU, a Gigabyte B650 Aorus Elite AX V2 motherboard, an MSI 4080 Ventus GPU, and 32GB of 6000MHz Trident Z Neo RAM (2x16). I'm also wondering if managing this setup will be too challenging for someone who's new to Linux.
3 Answers
There are plenty of step-by-step tutorials out there that can guide you through the dual boot process. Personally, I find it works better with two separate SSDs, but I’ve also used a single SSD before. Just make sure you pick a user-friendly distro like Pop!_OS that comes with the NVIDIA drivers pre-installed. Good luck!
Would you still recommend Pop!_OS since it hasn't had a major release in two years?
If you choose lighter distros like Debian or Arch, you probably won't notice much difference between the slower and faster SSDs unless you’re working with large files constantly. Even heavier options like Pop!_OS, Ubuntu, and Fedora are still much lighter than Windows 11, so you should be in good shape.
I'm currently on Windows 10 LTSC IOT, so I'm used to that—does that help my transition?
From my experience, having two separate SSDs works just fine! That's my two cents on the matter.
That does help, thanks! Are those tutorials usually found here or do I need to look elsewhere?