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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Whatever you do, do not get an Nvidia GPU. I've only ever had problems with Nvidia drivers on Linux. Meanwhile, the AMD drivers (both the ones baked into the kernel and proprietary) work nearly flawlessly.
Intel's most recent generation of CPUs were also frying themselves and Intel (at least last I checked) were not accepting RMAs from affected customers. Something to consider for your CPU at least.
I only ever had Nvidia GPUs (for Blender 3d work) and while it can be kind of a hassle still it has gotten soooo much better, I ran Bazzite for a hot minute (not anymore since my graphic tablet doesn't work with it) and it just worked ootb. On Kinoite now which was the usual "install these 500 packages via commandline" (but this time via rpm-ostree) but it still works fine.
My partner's computer was running bazzite on a 2080 super and it gave her nothing but problems, especially with Wayland. Switching to AMD immediately fixed the Wayland issues, and also completely stabilized her system. It could be that it was a problematic GPU, I suppose. I admit that I haven't personally used an Nvidia GPU since ~2020, however I did see the issues she had for sure.
Some build advice:
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
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).
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.
cpu wise both amd and intel are decent.
gpu wise stick with amd.
Just don’t bother with a 13th/14th gen intel right now. Either go 12th gen intel, or straight up AMD which is what I’d recommend.
Good to know, thanks.
Uh… are you not aware of the catastrophically bad lithography issues Intel has had lately across both the 13th and 14th gen, and the subsequent ass-tier fashion in which they handled it?
Do not buy a 13th or 14th gen Intel CPU.
i forgot about that one.
all-amd rig it is
Not to mention, iirc you should get a bit of a perf bump for the GPU due to AMD’s Infinity Cache, so long as you roll with (iirc) Zen2+ and RDNA2+
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). Reading/watching reviews of specific parts 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:
For a casual overview of CPUs/GPUs video review I'd recommend something like Linus Tech Tips (even with the prior controversy).
You only mention your laptop is running out of space so you need to get a new computer? does your laptop have a soldered SSD? If that's not the case, I think the reflex should first be to see what storage you can get your laptop so that you can keep using it rather than discarding it :(
This is good advice. Large SSDs are cheap, and often make a big performance difference on older laptops.
I am applying for university soon so I will still be using it, I also just want more power for running blender and such, but thanks for the information.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
Get a old workstation class machine
It is way more fun
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.
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.
ebay, ebay, ebay (and also pcpartpicker).
Unless you want to frag people at 4k@140Hz in the latest AAA game, you probably don't need the latest generation components (and I'd say your requirement are quite low here, consider how the only thing you complain about is storage space).
Unless you really want to assemble everything by yourself, consider buying one of the second-hand, previous-gen gaming rigs on ebay (but watch out for scams!). Even if you do want to assemble the PC yourself, consider buying used parts on ebay (or buying a full PC to cannibalize reselling the excess).
What are the specs of your current rig? Except for storage, are you satisfied with how it runs? How much storage do you need for the projects you are working on? How much to archive things? Do you want to do anything about backups? Is a full size tower ok? How good a video do you want? What is your budget?
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.
pcpartpicker.com is a good place to start and can help you know if specific parts are compatible but it's just a place to start and is often still missing important info.
So you still need to do due diligence and do things like check measurements to make sure, for example, your video card will actually fit inside your case, etc.
Also, since its your first time, you want to avoid any motherboards that require you to do a BIOS update to handle a newer processor, because that's just complicated stuff that you're going to want to skip as a beginner.
It's more expensive but go for a newer motherboard that is compatible with your processor out-of-the-box. BIOS updates are a pain and scary even for advanced users.
Do it
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'd avoid a 13th or 14th gen Intel processor right now because they've had a lot of problems with their manufacturing process. Otherwise, there's not really much difference between AMD and Intel in terms of like, OS compatibility or anything.
I've done some basic work with Davinci Resolve on linux and I haven't really had any issues with my Radeon 7800XT. I can't really speak for using the proprietary drivers for AMD, but with the open source drivers, as long as you install rocm-opencl through your package manager, Davinci Resolve should be fine. Overall, I'd recommend an AMD GPU. Edit: You mentioned blender in a comment. For AMD's open source drivers you'd need to install rocm-hip for Cycles to work
Edit 2: I hadn't tried blender in a bit and I realized apparently at least on Fedora 40, you also need rocm-hip-devel at least as of 09/24/24 for supported AMD GPUs to show up in Blender. Idk how that would translate to other distros
PC Part Picker is good cuz when you start a new build, you start with the CPU and then it'll only show you parts compatible with that CPU. As someone else mentioned tho, its not perfect and you still may want to check clearances between parts, like that your CPU cooler isnt too tall for your case, or that your Power Supply isnt too long (been there, lmao)
From my own personal experience with buying brand new RAM and it being bad a few times, I'd probably run memtest86+ for a few hours once the computer is together to make sure that the RAM actually works. You can download the linux ISO w/ GRUB option and make a bootable flash drive out of that and let it run. Afterwards, I usually install my OS. Might save you a few headaches down the road if you get into your new OS and things behave strangely, but its up to you.
Other than that, the setup shouldn't be too hard.