Burusutazu

Is it just me or the second tweet is acting weird?

That is a pretty fair overclock and I doubt you will be able to push much further as most 1050ti's will hit the power limit preventing them from going any further due to their lack of a pcie power connector. Have you checked the clocks of the gpu using msi afterburner as gpu boost is likely pushing the clocks higher than what is shown in gpu-z. My g1 gaming 1050ti boosted up to 1750mhz on stock clocks which is much higher than the advertised 1480mhz boost. 
 
Edit:
Also note that just because the card can runs at a higher clock doesn't mean it is faster. My 1050ti would score a better superposition score at +160 core and +270 mem than +200 core and +350mem. I suspect the main reason for this is that the card is hitting the power limit and internally throttling despite displaying higher clocks. So make sure you benchmark each overclock to see if the performance is scaling appropriately than once you find the sweet-spot stress test the overclock to make sure it is stable. 

Update: The ASRock works great and my build came out pretty nice. Still not that great at cable management though.
 

I bought the ASRock board last night after thinking about it awhile. Reviews on Newegg and Amazon were far more in favor of the ASRock board as well. My first build (- a new GPU, hello 750ti for now) should be completely finished next weekend.

TLP is realy great, I can get battery life pretty comparable to Windows on normal power settings with it. 

thanks, already found it online and installed. Temps just dropped by 20c. I'm running at 53c now and it's still going down.

Install the TLP package, by default Ubuntu does not really thermal manage for laptops.

Both look great, will have to think about it awhile.

Its a solid mobo didn't have any problem with any of the pcs ive built

Yea it's for I was looking on another mobo

Here's the micro ATX version too https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/PRIME-B350M-A-CSM/
@Burusutazu

I've had fairly good luck with the ATX version of the board. It has three fan headers, two of which I can control with the 3rd party Speedfan application, so I use two 3-way splitters for my six 140mm fans.
 
If you remember to update the bios, which is a simple process, you shouldn't have any issues with ram compatibility, either. I see so many complaints about that and feel I was extremely lucky to have my kit work without issue, so I'm attributing that to some good updated bios'.  Biosses? Biosi? what the hell is plural for bios? lol

I actually looked a quite a few motherboards but picked that one out because I thought the layout was more intuitive. The black and white colors also were a better fit than the brown color a lot of boards that price are.
 
Well out of my price range, a good looking board nonetheless. 

Even better than the ASRock is Asus TUF B350M Plus

That's the exact board I would've recommended.  Good overclocking and nice size (not expensive either)

Get the zotac one...104 usd on amazon

Okay, so I have notifications turned on for this subforum, and very frequently, I get the same "what distro for this computer" and "how to learn linux" posts, and I thought I'd write this to try to put some people's minds at ease. Because there is no way I can possibly cover everything, outside links will be plentiful. Please feel free to suggest edits or correct me on any points I make.
 
First off, anyone looking to ditch Windows who has never used Linux before needs to realize that they are immensely different. You don't download you software from websites (for the most part, I'll get to this later). A good portion of the software that you used on Windows will not be available on Linux, however there are plentiful open source alternatives for these. Most of your software will be downloaded directly from your distribution's repositories, either through a software "app store" so to speak or through a command line package manager. Speaking of the command line, you can't be afraid of it. The command line is one of your greatest tools in a Linux system. This is a pretty good guide for getting started.
 
So which distro is right for me?
 
This can be a tough question. Nobody can tell you exactly what distribution is right for you, in the end you will have to distro-hop until you find a home somewhere. I will however, try to give you a general recommendation
 
EDIT:  @Azgoth 2 covered it very well in a comment below
 
For the complete noob:
Most people will point you towards Linux Mint in this case, and I tend to agree. In fact, I ran it on my main PC for a long time. For the most part, it is a very stable distro, it's very easy to set up, and the community is very friendly. It is based on Ubuntu 16.04 as of the version 18 release. Ubuntu, or any of it's flavors, is also a very good place to start. I've also heard that Elementary is good for beginners (especially OSX converts) but I haven't used it. Honorable mentions go to Zorin OS and ChaletOS, I have heard that they are both very Windows-like and are generally pretty stable.
 
For an older computer:
The general consensus here is that Lubuntu and Xubuntu are the best choices for a beginner with a slower computer. Both are low on resource consumption and run great on older hardware. I personally have Xubuntu running on all three of my systems, one of which is as old as me (16 years!). BunsenLabs and ArchBang are good choices if you are slightly more experienced or want a challenge.
 
For anyone else:
Really, just take your pick. Fedora (or offspins like Korora or Chapeau), Manjaro, and Debian are all great choices. If you're brave, give Arch a try. 
 
Desktop Environments explained (link to post below)
https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/593724-a-guide-for-getting-started-with-linux/?do=findComment&comment=7754472
 
 
Installing Software
This varies between distros. Each has their own command line package manager, and graphical front-ends for them. This is a pretty complete list of programs available in Linux, as is this.
 
Debian-based: APT package manager
Debian based distributions such as Ubuntu, Mint, Elementary, BunsenLabs, etc, use the APT package manager. Installing a package is achieved by typing in the terminal 
sudo apt-get install chromium Chromium, the open-source version of Chrome, is being used in the example. "Sudo" grants you temporary root access in order to install the package (after providing your password). 
 
You also have the option to install pre-packaged ".deb" files, which you download from a website and then install with something like gDebi or Qapt (usually included in the distro. Left click the .deb and choose "install with ___"). This is how you would install Google Chrome (the non-open-source version).
 
To remove a program, type 
sudo apt-get remove chromium or
sudo apt-get purge chromium Purge removes all files associated with the package (ie config files), remove only removes the package
 
sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get upgrade These are used to update the repository lists and then upgrade the installed packages
 
EDIT: As of Ubuntu 16.04, you can simply type "sudo apt install ____".
 
Synaptic Package Manager is a good graphical front-end if you wish to avoid the CLI
 
Fedora-based: DNF package manager
I will admit, I have less experience with this than I should, and I'm sorry if there is misinformation. I used Fedora for a few weeks but not as extensively as I would've liked. If someone wants to swoop in here and correct me I'd be very thankful.
 
To install a package:
sudo dnf install chromium To remove a package:
sudo dnf remove chromium To update a package:
sudo dnf check-update sudo dnf upgrade  
DNF mostly uses simple commands, and is pretty easy to pick up. This is a good resource, I actually had to use it to check myself.
 
Arch-based: Pacman package manager
Pacman is one of my favorite package managers, for a couple reasons I won't get into. It's also pretty easy to pick up.
 
To install a package:
sudo pacman -S chromium (the capital S is important.)
To remove a package:
sudo pacman -R chromium or
sudo pacman -Rs chromium same deal as APT, -R removes the program, -Rs removes dependencies & configs
To update packages:
sudo pacman -Syu  
Arch also has the Yaourt and Pacaur (Pacaur is preferred by most users) package managers for the Arch User Repository, but I won't get into that. The commands however, are all the same as pacman (ie -S, -R, -Syu). Octopi and Pamac are popular graphical front-ends for pacman
 
Coming soon eventually: openSUSE: Zypper package manager
I finally got around to giving OpenSUSE a shot, and I'm really loving it! The commands are super simple.
 
To install a package:
sudo zypper in chromium To remove a package:
sudo zypper rm chromium To update packages:
sudo zypper up  
 
Eww, Linux is ugly!
You're damn right it is. However, with a little work, your OSX buddies will be jealous of your desktop for once. I'll just recommend you a few popular themes to get you started.
 
GTK Themes:
Arc (my fav)
Numix
Paper
 
Icon Themes:
Numix
Moka
Paper
 
Obviously there are TONS of themes out there, these are just the most popular and (imo) best looking. You'll most likely find the option to change your themes in your distro's settings menu, otherwise you could edit the configuration files manually.
 
How do I install Linux on my PC?
First, make sure that secure boot is turned off in your BIOS/UEFI. Next, go to the website of the distro you're going to use, and either direct download or torrent (torrenting isn't bad!) the .ISO file for the OS. Once that's done, either burn it to a CD using the build-in burner in WIndows (not recommended), or use a tool like Rufus, Universal USB Installer, or Unetbootin to burn the ISO to a USB drive. Now reboot the PC, press whatever key your PC requires to change the boot device, and select your USB drive (If you have a UEFI mobo, it can be a crapshoot whether or not you should boot it as UEFI or BIOS. Try both.). Select the "Live" option if there is one, since it gives you a chance to play around with it before installing. Once you're convinced you want to install the OS, fire up the installer (should be an icon on the home screen) and follow it's instructions. Reboot when it's done, and you're good to go!
 
How do I dual boot Linux and Windows on my PC?
https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/593724-a-guide-for-getting-started-with-linux/?do=findComment&comment=7862971
 
 
I'm having trouble with graphics drivers
Usually, there will be an "additional drivers" menu somewhere within your distro's settings menu's, usually you can select the Nvidia or AMD driver from there. If not, you're gonna have a rough time. This may help you on the Nvidia side, while AMD drivers can really be a crapshoot from what I've heard (don't own an AMD card, can't testify). If anyone has a good guide for getting them working, I'll link it.
 
 I NEED this piece of Windows software
You're in luck. There just so happens to be a program called Wine (and by extension, PlayOnLinux) that runs a "compatability layer" that allows some Windows programs to, albeit not always perfectly, run in a Linux environment. Nice, right?
 
I broke my system!
It happens, don't worry. Most likely, it's a simple fix, and you'll be able to recover your data. Your best bet is a Google search first, and if you come up empty come post in the forum here or in the Linux Helpdesk on the Tek Syndicate forums. Their Linux community is very active, sometimes you'll get a better/quicker answer over there. 
 
My laptop gets worse battery life in Linux than in Windows:
This is most likely the fault of unoptimized hardware, and affects just about everyone. The solution to this is to install a package called TLP. To install it, you'll want to run (assuming Debian base)
sudo apt-get install tlp and then 
tlp start You should get the output "TLP started in (bat/AC) mode".  Depending on the laptop, this could increase your battery life by a few minutes or a few hours in my experience.
 
How do I check my RAM & CPU usage? Where's Task Manager?
One of the most popular task manager applications is a command line script called HTOP. It looks like this:

You run it in the terminal by simply typing
htop in the terminal (it may or may not be installed already). Your distro/DE of choice may also have their own graphical Task Manager installed, you can usually find it by searching for "task manager" in the search bar or in the Administration folder of the main menu. In my case, Manjaro Cinnamon, HTOP is the pre-installed task manager, and I can actually click on an icon to launch a terminal with it running.
 
(this file) that I downloaded won't run! What should I do?
 This could be one of two very likely things. First, you probably want to make it executable. You can do this by typing 
chmod +x (your file) in the console. Now try running it again. The other thing that may be wrong is that you're missing dependencies. In Debian/Ubuntu, you can run 
sudo apt-get -f install just as an example. Some distros will handle this in different ways. If that doesn't work, try googling problems with that specific package on your distro. In many cases these are well documented and you can find a very simple answer.
 
Useful Resources:
Arch Wiki: even if you don't run Arch, you will find that the Arch Wiki is a great resource  Man pages: Accessed through the command line by typing "man sudo", or whatever you want to know about. Linux is one place where it's uncool not to read the manual. Your distro's website: a lot of distro's have  a wiki or a forum on their website, both of which are great resources if you can't find information elsewhere Here: A lot of the time, your question could've been asked and answered here before. Try the search bar in the top right of the website.  
For now, I think that covers the basics. Again, edits are welcome, and I will be adding more information to this thread if it comes to my mind. Cheers, good luck on your journey into open-source!
 
 
Note to those scared about trying Linux for the first time: I have only been using Linux since February 2016. I had never used it before, minus one time I installed Ubuntu with Wubi (look that up, it's actually pretty neat) on my laptop and then immediately deleted it when I was 8. I am pretty advanced with computers, as teenagers go at least, so I had an idea of what I was doing, and I wasn't afraid to learn. The whole key using Linux, in my experience, is to not be afraid to learn, not be afraid to experiment, and to google the hell out of everything!!! Good luck!

Sort of, but most Linux users wouldn't suggest that others use it if they're legitimately happy with Windows or Mac (or whatever else they're using...Haiku?). You wait until somebody is complaining about how Windows Update randomly restarted their computer in the middle of a game, or complaining about the OS X file system limitations, then you say "not a problem with Linux, if you'd like I can give you a flash drive that you can boot into without making any changes to your computer to try it out and see if you like it".
 
It's not going up to somebody who you see at McDonalds a lot and saying "you eat out too much, learn to cook", it's sitting around with your friend who eats out all the time and complains about how much he pays just for somebody else to heat something up and you say "ya dumbass, start cooking things at home".
 
Linux isn't for everybody just like cooking isn't for everybody. Everything has advantages and disadvantages, we're all just trying to find the issues we can live with and the benefits that mean something to us. 

My Ubuntu install boots in 30 seconds and is completely usable after logging in immediately. My clean Windows isntall takes 2 minutes and 37 seconds to boot and then another 2 minutes to be usable at all.
 
Installing software and maintaining it on Ubuntu is way easier than Windows. 
 
Updates are not shoved down your throat, but you still have the option for auto-update if you want.
 
You can customize it to your heats content.
 
It's free, and can work well on older hardware without sacrificing usability.
 
It allows those not happy with their experience to branch off and create their own beautiful masterpiece.
 
Natively developed games run flawlessly, and you can play a lot of Windows games without much problem.
 
Desktop linux is not for everyone, but those are the reasons I love Linux so much.

If you want a laptop which won't break within a year, definitely the XPS - they are a high-end work-grade series whereas the Razer Blade Stealth is a luxury fashion statement. Unlike the Stealth, the XPS runs cool and quiet, has a more solid body, MUCH better keyboard and Dell also offer superior customer support

Nope, I'm waiting till after finals for a fresh install.

Wipeing it completely clean? Just boot into a cd/ usb with linux on it and format the drive. Wanting to have a clean install of Mint ready for the person your selling it to? Use the OEM installer.

I chose Xubuntu, because it's awesome, but tbh, I suggest LXDE over XFCE. So, my real vote is Lubuntu. Or any other Debian with LXDE (LXMint and debian lxde are always good)

Trenta OS is still under development, with a huge update coming in June. I've used it myself and trust me, it doesn't disappoint in terms of looks. I don't have any screenshots at the moment, but Google images should provide you with some idea of what it feels like. There are also some YouTube videos about it.

You could give Trenta OS a spin. It's based on Ubuntu with the Rainier theme and icon pack. It's one of my favourite theme packs and there is also a ppa for it, so it's not just limited to Trenta OS.
 
Chalet OS is pretty neat as well and also based on Ubuntu.