My laptop is running out of storage space and I don’t have anything I can remove anymore to increase it by much, so I’m thinking about building a pc. I’d also like to find a better gpu for doing video editing.
It will be the first one I’ve built, so I don’t really know what I need. Also, does it matter for compatibility for Linux whether I go with AMD or Intel?
The high end of what I want to use it for is video editing with Kdenlive or Davinci Resolve, some modeling and animation in Blender, and some light gaming, like Minecraft or TUNIC.
I figure one of these guides might be useful, but I don’t really know which.
Is there anything else I should know for setting up a PC to run Linux?
Edit: Maybe these guides from Logical Increments can help actually.
Not sure if this would help, but I found this channel helpful for understanding the basics and mostly avoiding wrong parts. Also he has some videos were he explains why you should choose one part over another.
Get a old workstation class machine
It is way more fun
Blender and DaVinci Resolve work better on Nvidia. AMD might work, but it will be a hassle and you’ll likely need the proprietary AMD drivers anyway.
With Nvidia supporting Wayland and the open-source NVK continuing to get better, you could even switch to open source drivers for gaming at some point, if you prefer.
Edit: I’ve had enough issues with AMD GPU’s clocking down while gaming, leading to micro stuttering. So don’t buy AMD just because everyone tells you they work flawlessly.
For CPU and mainboard, everything works well — just don’t buy a random unknown SSD from Amazon, then you’re asking for data loss and random issues.
Don’t go with Intel. Anyone recommending intel should be ashamed and should have kept up with the tech news about Intel’s CPUs basically burning up and Intel ignoring the issue, including all the warranty claims. NO INTEL. AMD Cpu and Gpu, because AMD develops more for Linux than Nvidia does. But you could still go for Nvidia (if you want raytracing on in games).
I wouldn’t recommend Intel CPUs (at least the last two gens) either but if all that matters to you in a GPU is hardware encoding (quality or codec support), like for a Jellyfin server, Intel ARC is unbeatable.
For DaVinci Resolve, you will need an nvidia gpu, even their amd support is half-ar3ed, and intel doesn’t work at all (they don’t support it under linux, while they do on windows). So you need to decide if you’re going to use resolve, or kdenlive (that works with everything, since it’s not really accelerated – it’s slower (their acceleration is buggy)). However, if you’re going with nvidia, you will probably experience problems on the everyday desktop. So I’d suggest an amd gpu and cpu possibly.
Alternatively, just get a refurbished Dell laptop, or an older Zenbook. These usually work great with Linux.
you are getting advice that will make a good gaming pc but not a good workstation for what you said you’re gonna do.
do the opposite of what most everyone in this thread is saying:
intel over amd (this could actually go either way depending on the price point), nvidia over amd, start at 32gb of ram and go up from there. prioritize cores over threads, sneak a rotational hard disk in, spend more on your power supply than you planned to.
plan on not using wayland.
This is such a weird comment. Why would you want Nvidia on Linux? It is a pain and more expensive. Also Wayland works well on AMD and I hear it works well on Nvidia now
I’ve heard from many commenters in this thread that Blender and Davinci Resolve play nicer with Nvidia than with AMD when it comes to Linux.
Why should I plan on not using wayland? Is it because of the Nvidia support? I use Fedora normally so I’d have to install x11 after installation as Fedora recently dropped x11 support.
You mainly want to be able to do 3d and video editing right?
Those two, specifically with davinci resolve and blender, work best with nvenc and libcuda(?), the software libraries that let you take advantage of your nvidia cards encoders and cuda cores.
So if you were building for that workload, you’d have an nvidia card and many problems people encounter in Wayland come from using it with an nvidia card.
So yeah it’s the nvidia support. Most people will say “fuck nvidia, just don’t buy their hardware” but it’s the best choice for you and would be a huge help, so choosing between Wayland and nvidia is a no brainer.
It is a bummer that you’ll need to install x specially, but I’d be really surprised if there isn’t decent support for that.
There’s always the hope that Wayland will get better over time and you’ll be able to use it in a few years.
E: a word on encoding: both amd and intel CPU’s have video encode and decode support, but the intel qsv is more widely supported and tends to be faster most of the time. When people suggest intels arc gpus they’re saying it because those gpus use qsv and for a video editing workstation they’d be a good choice.
Part of the reason I put intel and amd cpus on an even footing for you is because any cost savings you get from going amd would likely be offset by the performance decrease. Theres some good breakdowns of cpu encoder performance out there if you want to really dive in, it remember that you’re also in a good place to buy intel because of the crazy deals from sky is falling people.
That kinda ties into the cores over threads thing too. If your computers workload is a bunch of little stuff then you can really make hay of using a scheduler that is always switching stuff around. One of the things that makes amds 3d processors so good at that stuff is that they have a very big cache so they’re able to extend the benefit of multi threading schedulers up to larger processes. You’re looking at sending your computer a big ol’ chunk of work though, so you’re not usually gonna be multithreading with that powerful scheduler and instead just letting cores crunch away.
Part of the reason I didn’t suggest intels arc stuff is that you’re also doing 3d work and being able to take advantage of the very mature cuda toolchain is more important.
Plus nvidia encoding is also great and if you were to pair it with an intel cpu you could have the best of both worlds.
You’re really looking to build something different than most people and that’s why my advice was so against the grain. Hope you end up with a badass workstation.
plan on not using Wayland
Strong disagree on that one, X11 sucks
I am not going to fight you on if x is better than Wayland.
The ops use case involves operations, software and hardware that function best with x.
The op should avoid Wayland.
Newer hardware is likely going to be wayland focused in the graphics stack. Not to say X won’t work but as time goes on it is getting more and more broken
I mean there is no harm in trying Wayland and switching to X11 if it doesn’t work.
The op asked for help to make their experience as painless as possible and listed two primary use cases that not only are often related to the problems people encounter with Wayland but function best with hardware that is also related to the problems people encounter with Wayland.
If someone said they need to haul hay I wouldn’t say “try it in your Saturn first and see if it works!” I’d say “make sure you have a truck or a trailer.”
The harm is in setting a person up for failure when they asked for help.
Wayland is way less painful now as it fixes the architectural issues with X. It is simply cleaner and way less complex. It also has the benefit of being reasonably secure and maintained
The latest beginner guide from LTT is really good. So good that I was somewhat baffled. Whoever did the script for that episode deserves a raise. It is information packed but beginner friendly and has plenty of infographic detailing stuff.
You have a link handy?
Not them, but I do! https://youtu.be/s1fxZ-VWs2U
My first question is about your laptop; is the SSD removable, because if so, even a pretty large SSD is cheap these days.
Also, the GPU question is complicated. For most use cases, AMD is better on Linux. However, since you’re doing Resolve and Blender, that gets a bit murky. It depends on if ROCm support is less dismal on later AMD cards - I have an RX 580, which AMD quickly dropped support for and I am bitter about.
This is not to say I like NVidia, but for fast video encoding and rendering, as far as I know, it’s the easier option. Someone correct me if I am wrong, please.
As for actually building the thing, you’d start by look for what CPU you want, then find a compatible motherboard, then read the board’s compatibility list for RAM. They usually have compatibility lists for storage - those don’t matter, as it’s pretty universal. Then choose a graphics card, a case with the right form factor, a PSU, and a cooler. I tend to go with liquid cooling, as it’s not that expensive anymore.
Like others have said, check kernel support for your hardware, but also, it’s generally much easier on desktop. The main things to look out for are ethernet and WiFi controllers. By the way, what distro do you prefer, because that’s definitely a factor.
Thanks for the information, it’s all very helpful. I’m thinking of just using my laptop as a secondary device when I’m out of the house, so a hard drive upgrade won’t be necessary, but I’ll definitely keep that in mind. As for a distro, I’ll most likely be using Fedora.
GPU go with AMD, I don’t think I need to give much explanations here.
CPU you can do either, BUT AMD is usually better for multi-threaded applications (like video editing, modeling or animation), also an AM5 slot should last you years to come, AMD stayed with AM4 for a long time (I had most of the same PC for almost a decade thanks to that, it’s still the same AM4, but I had to replace the MOBO since the old one broke). So I would also choose AMD here, although Intel is not bad either, and if you get it in a sale it might come out cheaper.
AMD stayed with AM4 for a long time
You’re not wrong, but I also wouldn’t explicitly buy AM5 expecting anywhere near the same duration of new CPU support.
They haven’t announced where Zen 6 CPUs will land socket-wise, and the most sane thing to do is just assume it’ll be a new socket since their “four years” of socket support is Zen4+Zen5, which is what we’ve already gotten.
Do it
I’ve used Logical Increments in the past and found it very useful to meet a budget. Now I aim for “price to performance” sweet spots (since GPU prices have been crazy I’m now well overdue for a new GPU).
Both CPU manufactures are changing their naming schemes (to make it difficult to know what it is, I wish this was hyperbole). GPU manufactures also make some weird choice on naming GPUs (same-name GPU with different VRAM, when it comes to Getting informed on specific CPUS Looking at builds on reading/watching reviews of specific CPUs to get informed will likely be the best way to know what you aught to buy.
If you’re confident in your technical knowledge or want to then narrow down your choices then I would recommend watching videos from:
- (GPU, CPU, Case) Gamers Nexus
- (GPU, CPU, Case, Monitor) Hardware Unboxed and Monitors Unboxed.
For a casual overview of CPUs/GPUs video review I’d recommend something like Linus Tech Tips (even with the prior controversy).
I’ve noticed that when I am specking out a new computer I typically fall into the trap of wanting the absolute best computer I can get for the money.
I’ve always been on the cheaper side, so I have found myself spending days or weeks researching various parts at various quality levels at various prices.
It becomes a huge drag.
Set the budget that you’re comfortable with, find the motherboard that has the features that you want, then get a CPU that fits in that price range, a case that fits your use cases, and then if you’re going to splurge on anything splurge on the power supply as a good power supply can last you through multiple computers.
If you have to save money somewhere, save money on RAM as you can always order more or upgrade the rim that you have relatively inexpensively. Maybe if you’re going intel, purchase an i5 CPU and then consider upgrading if you max out its abilities or you find yourself frequently running at 100% utilization.
And don’t overlook pre-builts. There are lots of refurbished computers that you can purchase for far less than the cost of the individual parts that have all of the minimum specs that you want in exchange for little things like only having a single stick of ram or having a low quality SSD.
There’s nothing that stops you from upgrading later should your use case change.
Second the power supply. Nicer ones come with longer warranty (i think the Seasonic Titanium+ ones have a 10 year?). A bigger motherboard with more features/ports/slots can also be shifted to home server duty in the future better than say, an ITX board.
Nicer ones come with longer warranty
Nicer ones also come from companies with actual customer support that will replace your PSU if it fails in that warranty period, too.
Be Quiet is good, Seasonic is good and uh, yeah. Buy one of those.
I have no idea what you’re referring to, diablotek is a perfectly valid power supply manufacturer (/s do they even still exist? I heard they were legendary for exploding)
The really fun ones were the Deer PSUs.
They existed in one of two conditions:
- Destroyed your entire computer, and currently on fire
- About to destroy your entire computer, and maybe on fire
Thanks so much. I don’t have a budget set yet, but it didn’t occur to me that I can just upgrade if I need higher specs haha, so that’ll make budgeting a lot easier.
Also, wait until Christmas if you can. Most computer parts have their deepest sale then (it’s not Black Friday, surprisingly).
If there’s a Microcenter in the area, they do pretty great deals around tax return season (if in US), lots of cpu+RAM+MOBO combos for a good $200 off.
Older generation hardware usually has better support on Linux. So don’t buy the lastest chipsets. Otherwise you might have to live with an unstable driver and compiling your own kernel for up to a year.
I built my current PC using one of those PCPartPicker guides, and I’m very happy with it.
The only issue I had was the video driver. I use the Linux Mint Long Term Support version, and the kernel didn’t have a recent enough driver for my card. I just needed to switch to the latest kernel and it was good to go. I actually had no idea how to troubleshoot it, and went to the LM forum to ask for help. I was reading through the guide on what info to supply with help requests and realised that the example fault and solution were the exact ones I was facing!
Some build advice:
- Be safe - don’t wear socks, stand on a hard floor if possible, ground yourself if you have a wrist strap for that, and discharge any static by touching metal and/or the case before touching any components. And no matter what, DO NOT open the power supply, and definitely don’t touch anything in it!
- The huge motherboard connector probably requires more force than comfortable.
- Watch through at least one build guide before starting. That way you know the process.
Hope that helps, and don’t let it scare you away - it’s really fun to do and if you’re careful, chances are nothing major will go wrong.
At first I thought you meant these “programming socks” from Linux community 😭 But still a great advice
