Help needed with building a Linux PC

[KGIII]

You can also take an ex corporate system like a Dell Optiplex or an HP Elitedesk picked up at bargain prices from Ebay or Amazon and upgrade it with a superior graphics card.

That's what I did, except I didn't add a graphics card. The onboard graphics are good enough for me.

I had a whole thread about it because I was pretty amazed at what I could buy for $100 on NewEgg.

I swapped the SSD out to one with an OS already installed, set UEFI to boot to that drive, and then booted it. It stayed up and running for more than a month before I finally decided it needed a reboot.

The thing doesn't even get hot. I've never heard the fan. I'll throw an M.2 NVMe SSD into it one of these days. I ordered one and it's sitting in my study waiting for me to find motivation and time.

 

[Hillbilly H]

LOL i found a new "ultra gaming pc with a NVIDIA K600"...

 

[Condobloke]

FWIW...graphics cards seem to be trouble for many users

I have two monitors

I watch recorded tv shows most days...sometimes for many hours and work on the second monitor at the same time

All on onboard graphics

 

[dos2unix]

FWIW...graphics cards seem to be trouble for many users

I have two monitors

I watch recorded tv shows most days...sometimes for many hours and work on the second monitor at the same time

All on onboard graphics

I am interested to see Intel's new ARC and IRIS video offerings. So far the benchmarks I have seen on
tomshardware are adequate, but not great.

But I do agree with you here. For some reason video cards seem to cause some people headaches in Linux.

I don't know why. I have nVidia cards in a few systems, and I never have any trouble at all with them.

 

[MikeWalsh]

But I do agree with you here. For some reason video cards seem to cause some people headaches in Linux.

I don't know why. I have nVidia cards in a few systems, and I never have any trouble at all with them.

Mm. I suspect that for many people they either don't know HOW to research stuff.....or they can't be bothered. They just make their minds up that they want the top of the range offering from Nvidia or AMD, drop the shekels on it, then spend a ton of time trying to "brute-FORCE" it to work.....without ever checking to see if it actually will.

I never buy any piece of hardware without doing my research first. Saves a LOT of hassle further down the road..... I may seem to be super-cautious, but it usually pays off.

I'm not seduced by a lick of glitter and a flash of chrome. I couldn't really care less what an item LOOKS like; I'm more interested in its functionality.....will it work FULLY with Linux, and will it let me do what I want it to?

My system probably looks very plain to many - it's probably best described as a "sleeper", if I'm honest! - very non-descript on the outside, but all the "exciting" stuff is inside, under the skin.....and it lets me do everything I could possibly need, or want. (And THEN some.... )


Mike.

 

[Hillbilly H]

..The "NEW'' (Ultra 750 Watt LSP 750 ATX Power Supply) came today. BUT in the box was a used generic 350w power supply!..
Yet anther ebay return!

 

[KGIII]

..The "NEW'' (Ultra 750 Watt LSP 750 ATX Power Supply) came today. BUT in the box was a used generic 350w power supply!..
Yet anther ebay return!

I have never had a bad eBay experience but I have heard some horror stories. Rather than push my luck, I just shop elsewhere.

I've had great results with Newegg, even with 3rd party sellers. When I compare like to like across the various sites, the costs are fairly similar.

Man, I don't like typing on a phone.

 

[Hillbilly H]

i get a lot of stuff from ebay. Mostly cheap chinese **** and have about 50% refunded.
LOL one winter i got bored and got 100+- microsd cards from different vendors.
i tested the cards all where knockoffs and not one would hold close to the stated GBs.
Yes it was a long hard winter.
P.S. Know the ebay return policy. Not the sellers not return policy.

 

[Hillbilly H]

Ordered another power supply. $73...

 

[KGIII]

i get a lot of stuff from ebay. Mostly cheap chinese **** and have about 50% refunded.
LOL one winter i got bored and got 100+- microsd cards from different vendors.
i tested the cards all where knockoffs and not one would hold close to the stated GBs.
Yes it was a long hard winter.
P.S. Know the ebay return policy. Not the sellers not return policy.

That sounds like a fun project.

Did you document your findings anywhere? That'd make for an interesting article or video.

 

[Condobloke]

Know the ebay return policy. Not the sellers not return policy.

That is crucial, when dealing with ebay.

 

[The Duck]

Mm. I suspect that for many people they either don't know HOW to research stuff.....or they can't be bothered.

OH they know how to research they're just lazy plain and simple.

They just make their minds up that they want the top of the range offering from Nvidia or AMD, drop the shekels on it, then spend a ton of time trying to "brute-FORCE" it to work.....without ever checking to see if it actually will.

And when they can't get it to work then they scream and complain about how much Linux sucks and go back to using Windows.

I never buy any piece of hardware without doing my research first. Saves a LOT of hassle further down the road..... I may seem to be super-cautious, but it usually pays off.

Exercising those grey cells can really pay off.

I'm not seduced by a lick of glitter and a flash of chrome. I couldn't really care less what an item LOOKS like; I'm more interested in its functionality.....will it work FULLY with Linux, and will it let me do what I want it to?

Yeah I don't need or want any of that circus candy on any of my hardware.
A plain black roomy case for mounting fans in for cooling is what I like.

 

[dos2unix]

Yeah I don't need or want any of that circus candy on any of my hardware.
A plain black roomy case for mounting fans in for cooling is what I like.

I am almost surprised at hard it is to buy a case without RGB lighting everywhere.

( That makes my computer faster, right? )

 

[The Duck]

I am almost surprised at hard it is to buy a case without RGB lighting everywhere.

A small pair of good diagonal wire cutters will take care of those RBG case lighting.

( That makes my computer faster, right? )

Right.

 

[Condobloke]

Well known fact....that all red cars are the fastest.

 

[Hillbilly H]

Did you document your findings anywhere?

Unfortunately no. At the time i was doing it to mess with the scammers.
i have grate animosity for scammers.

 

[Hillbilly H]

OH they know how to research they're just lazy plain and simple.

ill play the devils advocate on this one.
ive spent many hours looking at the hardware trying to find documentation that its compatible with Linux. Mostly i find nothing or one liners E.G. "it worked for me" in response to the question "Will _______ work with Linux?

 

[KGIII]

At the time i was doing it to mess with the scammers.

If you haven't done so, look up "scam baiting" on YouTube.

 

[MikeWalsh]

@Hillbilly H :-

ill play the devils advocate on this one.
ive spent many hours looking at the hardware trying to find documentation that its compatible with Linux. Mostly i find nothing or one liners E.G. "it worked for me" in response to the question "Will _______ work with Linux?

Primarily, I find it's stuff like GPUs and wifi adapters that DO need the research. Stuff like HDDs, SSDs, USB flash drives, external drives (of ANY sort), etc, you know they're going to work pretty much 99% of the time, because these are all items that are fundamental to any standard hardware setup.......and the Linux kernel has been working on these items for a LONG time.

To a lesser extent, you can include webcams in the "Will it.....won't it?" head-scratching circus. I found out a long time ago that there's an easy "short-cut" to seeing if these will work; look to see if they're UVC-compatible (Universal Video Class). If they are, you're home & dry.......because the Linux v4l2 kernel module has supported UVC since, like, FOREVER.

This made me very happy about three or four years ago. I'd experimented with cheap'n'cheerful webcams for years, and finally determined that I was going to blow some serious cash on a good one and be done with it. I'd been eying-up the Logitech c920 HD 'Pro' for several years, but here in the UK it had for long enough been out of my price range (GBP £100 +).

We've got a chain-store called PCWorld over this side of "the Pond", and in the Black Friday sale in 2019, they were selling these off at a little under half-price to make way for the hyper-expensive 'Brio' range (which it appears are not all they're cracked up to be, but.....I digress). At that price, I decided to grab one, and damn the consequences.....but 2 minutes reading the small print on the box showed I'd got nowt to worry about. There, halfway down, were the magic words "UVC-compatible".....

Yippee! Made me a very happy bunny.

I've been extremely pleased with it. Despite being a nearly 10-yr old design, they're STILL the most popular webcam world-wide......because they work near as dammit everywhere, and do everything very competently to boot. 'Twas one of the best investments I've made to date.....

The moral of this wee tale is simple; a bit of research will nearly always pay off in spades. And it doesn't take long, either; here, Google is your friend (or, as in my case, DuckDuckGo). Search engines DO have their uses, despite that most of us get incredibly frustrated with 'em from time to time..!


Mike.

 

[Condobloke]

You may find something here:

Linux Hardware Database

A database of all the hardware that works under linux

linux-hardware.org