Discussion Forums > Technology
Im Building a (Linux) Desktop
firefish5000:
Sorry, I don't know too much about hardware and it seems some people here know quite a lot, and since one the the main requirements for my pc is it must be able to play the 8/10bit mkv anime without a problem, I thought it might be a good idea to post this here.
I dont know what all to post myself, so please tell me if I need to put down anything else.
What I have...
I have ~800$ (USD) to spend
A 3TB SATA drive (WD green http://wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=120)
The Operating System (Gentoo, Ubuntu, Debian, Linux Mint, etc. I change OS frequently)
The keyboard & mouse
The TV (monitor)
A HDMI cable (which I hope to use)
the speakers. (for when I use the normal monitor)
................... .
Thats it, I don't really know what else I should get...
Please give suggestions you can think of. Thanks
datora:
.
There are several linux topics in this tech forum ... I think three or so in the past year. Strongly suggest you find & read those. Also check the Playback Help forum.
If you click on the Search for these forums without entering anything, it will ask you if you forgot ... and there will be a powerful Advanced Search option so you can target individual forums. I can't promise much help in the Playback Help, but I'm sure there's at least some, and possibly also in the General Help.
It seems you will be building a machine dedicated as a multimedia linux box ..? If so, one of your first best choices is linux Mint. Especially if you're pretty n00b-ish to linux. So, your distro is pretty much decided. Not a bad idea to familiarize yourself with Distro Watch if you're not aware of it already.
Onward: your budget is fairly generous. You can do a lot with it. If you are not interested in a game rig, you can skip Intel and go with AMD + nvidea for your CPU + GPU base hardware. Generally, it will offer you stability and flexibility under linux while keeping your costs down, yet you can still build a monstrous powerful system. Plan on "light" overclocking your CPU, and possibly your GPU (though, that should not be necessary).
AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition Deneb 3.7GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core - $150
or
AMD Phenom II X4 970 Deneb 3.5GHz Socket AM3 125W - $130
These are about to go out of production, but vastly overpowered for a multimedia box. Copious power left over for many other tasks. Clocks can be pushed to 4.2 and 4.5 GHZ, or lope along at ~3.8/4.0 GHz range. Budget ~$45-$55 for substantial air-cooling block, plus another ~$30 for thermal grease and top quality fans.
Get a mobo with an AM3+ socket and you can upgrade to an 8x core in a year pretty cheap.
RAM: DDR3 1600, 8 GB is hella plenty; get a 2x 4GB kit with low timing, like CS 8 or even 7 if you can find it. G.SKILL or Mushkin are two top performance brands that come in cost effective.
For GPU, nvidea GeForce GTX 460 with 1 GB DDR5 RAM, 256-bit data path, ~780-810 MHz base clock speed that supports Direct X 11 AND OpenGL 4.1 (or, even better, 4.2) is a good base to start from. OpenGL will give you linux flexibility. That "X" is important. Probably go as low as ~$120, maybe into the ~$150 range. It should be half a dozen times more powerful than you need, unless you have something unusual you require. You can get crazy and look for a 480, a 560 or 580 and base clock up around ~900+ MHz ... but that won't be a "budget" card.
Mobo can be had for $140 to $190 depending. An AM3+ socket gives you a generous upgrade path for CPU, especially if you can grab a 990FX chipset for a good price. I managed a GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3 AM3+ AMD 990FX for $140 delivered, so they're dropping in price these days. That "X" is important. Maybe look at the UD5, or an ASUS Sabertooth. These are performance boards for games & overclocking; you may not need something so heavy duty.
Power supply, you should be able to get a ~620 or 650 watt green Bronze 80 for under $80, maybe even ~$50 by shopping around. The system I just outlined doesn't really need more than ~500-550 watts ... but, a 620 watt supply ensures you will never have issues with a single video card. 650, 680 and 700 are really big overkill; 600 or 620 is already generous overkill.
Case: Lian Li. Check options and grab a good one when it goes for ~$50 on special. You won't regret it, unless you want something with lots of lights and shiny ... then you'll be looking in the $100-$150 range.
Disclaimer: I typed this at the speed of thought while slightly drunk and fairly sleep-deprived. there may well be some "interesting" mistakes which I'll have to correct later ... or someone else will shortly ... but it gives you a lot of base specs and costs to begin your estimates.
Get the Deneb Black 980 and plan to run it at 4.2 GHz minimum. You can probably run it at ~4.5-4.8 stable if you really need the extra processing power, but you shouldn't need to and 4.0/4.1 GHz will be easier on your power bill while still performing seriously.
[ EDIT: forgot to mention SSD for your main OS & app drive. You just missed this one as a Shell Shocker for $130 delivered:
SanDisk Extreme SDSSDX-120G-G25 2.5" 120GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Study its specs. This is the caliber drive you'd like to get for that price. You really don't need much more than a 60 GB SATA III drive, but having a 90 GB is better, and a 120 is generous overkill. No need for more. Look carefully at reviews to find the more modern, much more stable 2nd & 3rd gen SSDs. Look for MTF of 2,000,000 or more hours. You should pay right around $1 per GB for a SATA III; anything else is a ripoff these days. ]
kitamesume:
^why not an A8-3870K build? its a nice fit for the specs hes aiming for.
something like this:
[$139.99 ($15 off promo by 3/19)] AMD A8-3870K Unlocked Llano 3.0GHz Socket FM1
[$47.99]Scythe SCBSK-2100 120mm Sleeve BIG Shuriken 2 Rev. B CPU Cooler
[$74.99] ASRock A75M FM1 AMD A75
[$59.99] Kingston HyperX 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 Desktop Memory
[$44.99] APEX DM-317-A Media Center Slim HTPC w/ Flex 275W PSU
-------------------------------------------------------------------
[$352.95] SYSTEM TOTAL
notes: this is kind of a bland rig though since its sub-par when you compare it to intel's line up.
also intel's option:
[$179.99] Intel Core i5-2300 Sandy Bridge Quad Core 2.8GHz
[$69.99] GIGABYTE GA-H61MA-D3V
[$48.99] Kingston HyperX Blu 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 Desktop Memory
[$99.99] SAPPHIRE 100326LP Radeon HD 6670 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Low Profile Video Card
[$44.99] APEX DM-317-A Media Center Slim HTPC w/ Flex 275W PSU
-------------------------------------------------------------------
[$443.95] SYSTEM TOTAL
OR a beast like this:
[$324.99 ($20 off promo by 3/19)] Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge Quad Core + HT 3.4GHz
[$69.99] GIGABYTE GA-H61MA-D3V
[$59.99] Kingston HyperX 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 Desktop Memory
[$159.99] ASUS HD7770-DC-1GD5 Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition 1GB 128-bit GDDR5
[$74.99] SILVERSTONE SUGO SG02-BF Black ABS / SECC Steel MicroATX
[$44.99] CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 V2
-------------------------------------------------------------------
[$714.94] SYSTEM TOTAL
notes: its a beast, thats it.
also
+1 on the SSD, you'll pretty much need it if you want insta-boot HTPC.
incoming trinity and ivy bridge would be an even better option.
Bob2004:
Generally, you can just follow the same advice given in the past to people building Windows systems in this forum too. Hardware support in Linux is generally very good, and most things (CPU/mobo/RAM/etc) will work the same regardless of what OS you have installed.
That said, get an Nvidia graphics card. AMD will work, but their driver support in Linux is significantly inferior to Nvidia drivers. It's improved a lot lately, since AMD finally open-sourced parts of it, but generally AMD cards are not all that reliable in Linux. Other than that point, the suggestions above are all pretty good - though I'm not up to date on current-gen GPUs so I can't suggest the best alternative to those AMD cards.
Also, I agree an SSD would be helpful if you want a fast-booting HTPC, but for a normal desktop PC, it is really not necessary. It's nice to have if you have $100 spare to spend on one, but the difference it makes to boot time is definitely not worth the cost, IMO. And it's not like Windows will run especially slow without it.
kureshii:
--- Quote from: Bob2004 on March 15, 2012, 10:46:52 AM ---[...] but the difference it makes to boot time is definitely not worth the cost, IMO. And it's not like Windows will run especially slow without it.
--- End quote ---
If you’re buying an SSD for the boot times, hand over your money to someone who can better spend it for you. But if you use GIMP, Libreoffice, Inkscape, Blender, (and other slower-loading graphical interface apps) with any kind of regularity, you will definitely appreciate the much shorter app-loading times an SSD can give.
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