New 86u

[Gar]

i just bought a refurbished 86u and it has old ASUS f/w installed. My intent is to install Merlin f/w. Should I install this in any particular way or install it directly with Merlin, meaning should I update with latest ASUS f/w first then do Merlin? Also I read f/w 384 may not enable h/w acceleration fully, if so should I do 380 instead?

 

[Grisu]

you wont find any 380-versions!
You can directly update what you want to, only better make a factory reset after changing from stock to Merlin as you have no setup to loose.

 

[doczenith1]

Also I read f/w 384 may not enable h/w acceleration fully, if so should I do 380 instead?

Are you sure you read that about the 86U and not the 68U? My 86U supports both Runner and Flow Cache on all versions of Merlin's 384 branch firmware.

 

[Gar]

You're right, its with the 68u...oops

My old 56u was CTF only no matter what I did.