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.
- Eugenia ( @eugenia@lemmy.ml ) English4•6 hours ago
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.
- bloodfart ( @bloodfart@lemmy.ml ) 4•7 hours ago
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.
- kinship ( @kinship@lemmy.sdf.org ) 9•13 hours ago
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.
- MinFapper ( @MinFapper@startrek.website ) English2•13 hours ago
You have a link handy?
- Onihikage ( @Onihikage@beehaw.org ) English4•12 hours ago
Not them, but I do! https://youtu.be/s1fxZ-VWs2U
- data1701d (He/Him) ( @data1701d@startrek.website ) English6•15 hours ago
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.
- AmbiguousProps ( @AmbiguousProps@lemmy.today ) English21•19 hours ago
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.
- jlow (he/him) ( @jlow@beehaw.org ) 7•17 hours ago
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.
- Telorand ( @Telorand@reddthat.com ) 1•12 hours ago
Why did you rebase, if you don’t mind my asking?
- AmbiguousProps ( @AmbiguousProps@lemmy.today ) English2•16 hours ago
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.
- RogueBanana ( @RogueBanana@lemmy.zip ) English1•2 hours ago
I did see a lot of news about nvidia drivers this year so things might have improved quite a bit. I have a laptop with 4050 and it seems fine for the most part running nix but I haven’t done anything outside gaming.
- Julian ( @julianh@lemm.ee ) English12•18 hours ago
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.
- umbrella ( @umbrella@lemmy.ml ) 15•19 hours ago
cpu wise both amd and intel are decent.
gpu wise stick with amd.
- sparky1337 ( @sparky1337@ttrpg.network ) 25•19 hours ago
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.
- kusivittula ( @kusivittula@sopuli.xyz ) 2•18 hours ago
why would one get an old intel instead of amd?
- RogueBanana ( @RogueBanana@lemmy.zip ) English1•2 hours ago
As they already mentioned, they also recommend amd but it’s still good to have a few options to deal with budget constraints.
- thejevans ( @thejevans@lemmy.ml ) 5•18 hours ago
If you’re on a budget and can get 12th gen parts for cheap, I guess
- sparky1337 ( @sparky1337@ttrpg.network ) 1•17 hours ago
Like the other commenter said, you can get some pretty good deals due to the recent issues.
- bizarroland ( @bizarroland@fedia.io ) 7•17 hours ago
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.
- Telorand ( @Telorand@reddthat.com ) 2•12 hours ago
Also, wait until Christmas if you can. Most computer parts have their deepest sale then (it’s not Black Friday, surprisingly).
- Zorsith ( @Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) English2•9 hours ago
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.
- Zorsith ( @Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) English4•17 hours ago
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.
- schizo ( @schizo@forum.uncomfortable.business ) English2•15 hours ago
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.
- Zorsith ( @Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) English1•12 hours ago
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)
- schizo ( @schizo@forum.uncomfortable.business ) English2•10 hours ago
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
- The Hobbyist ( @TheHobbyist@lemmy.zip ) 9•19 hours ago
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 :(
- Snot Flickerman ( @SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) English7•19 hours ago
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.
- jlow (he/him) ( @jlow@beehaw.org ) 2•16 hours ago
Can someone chime on who has used Blender with both and AMD GPUs vs Nvidia? Everything I could find out (which is surprisingly little) is that AMD is much slower (no real Cuda/Optix equivalent?) but I have no idea if that is true.
- gomp ( @gomp@lemmy.ml ) 6•18 hours ago
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?
- Snot Flickerman ( @SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) English6•19 hours ago
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.
- thejevans ( @thejevans@lemmy.ml ) 4•18 hours ago
As you have in your post, Logical Increments is a good place to start.
As others have said, AMD is your best bet currently, mostly because of raw performance compared to recent Intel offerings. If you have no limited budget or power requirements, here are my recommendations:
If you have the paid version of Davinci Resolve, AMD does not have the best selection of hardware encode/decode options, but people have reported that Intel Arc GPUs work, so I would get and Intel A310 as a secondary GPU if that is something that you need.
If you want the best of the best GPU, without going Nvidia, the AMD RX 7900XTX is it. Also, AMD has stated publicly that they are moving away from high-end GPUs, so there probably won’t be a better one coming out anytime soon.
If you want to plan for more gaming than you stated in your post, the Ryzen 7800X3D is the best gaming CPU on the market, so I would get that. If you plan to focus on video editing, the 9950X is the best, but probably not worth the cost compared to cheaper 9000 or 7000 chips.
If you go with a Ryzen 7000 or 9000 CPU, get DDR5-6000 CL30 memory.
If you’re getting an air cooler for your CPU, don’t pay more than $50. There are a ton of great, cheap options these days.
Get either the new Antec Flux Pro case (when it’s available, probably this month) or the Fractal Torrent if you care about best thermals and quiet operation. Everything else is a compromise.
If you need HDMI 2.1, you’ll need a DP -> HDMI adapter on an AMD GPU because of a licensing squabble.
Those are things I could think of off the top of my head. I don’t think I missed anything big.
Thx for the information!
- penquin ( @penquin@lemm.ee ) 4•18 hours ago
If you’re using davinci resolve then you’ll need an Nvidia GPU for nvenc to work. Otherwise, I’d say go all AMD like I did with my current and first PC, too. Fuck Nvidia even though a lot of people say it’s better now, but I have Nvidia PTSD and will never buy their shit. I have a Ryzen 7 5700G that comes with a built in GPU and a friend of mine gave me an old ass RX580 GPU that has been doing just fine for two 4k monitors. If you can give up davinci resolve or work with it halfassed, then all AMD is amazing. It’s basically plug N play.
- data1701d (He/Him) ( @data1701d@startrek.website ) English1•10 hours ago
I agree with you on the 580, although I got mine new and use it with 2 1080P monitors. I do wonder if ROCm works any better on newer cards, but I don’t have my hopes up.
- penquin ( @penquin@lemm.ee ) 1•2 hours ago
2 4k monitors have been working on all games. I do admit that some games have to be set to low settings, but in general, I’m have a blast What’s ROCm? Lol
- erwan ( @erwan@lemmy.ml ) 4•18 hours ago
- Stay clear from nvidia. AMD if you buy a graphics card, if you just use integrated graphics both AMD and Intel are fine
- When picking a motherboard, look what wifi chipset is used and check Linux compatibility. Some wifi chipsets require to manually install drivers, and some just don’t work at all
- rem26_art ( @rem26_art@fedia.io ) 4•18 hours ago
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
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.
- jlow (he/him) ( @jlow@beehaw.org ) 1•16 hours ago
How is Blender on Amd GPUs compared to Nvidia? I always that it’s not really all that good but I’d love to be wrong here …
- rem26_art ( @rem26_art@fedia.io ) 1•15 hours ago
I personally don’t do a lot of Blender work outside of a super basic render with like one or two light sources and never really used it much when i still had an Nvidia card so I can’t really speak to it, unfortunately. I’ve never really experienced any crashes or issues or anything, outside of a regression in one of the versions of rocm-hip that was eventually patched.