Linux Questions

[Jayhawk]

So, I'm not savy at all in the Linux department of tech knowledge and had a few questions, but first, I'll tell a little story. I have a friend who, thanks to my new-found group of the pc master race, wants a gaming computer. The problem is that he's on a bit of a small budget, about $500. I'd like to help him here, however, it's a bit hard to build a tight budget build with Windows for $500. With it, the budget might as well be $400. The best I could manage is an Anthlon 860K, a $20 MSI motherboard, 8 GB of ram, and an R7 260X. The rest of the parts are pathetic and not worth listing, save for the Corsair 230T. I love that case. So, now for the questions. Would it be better to save $100 and use Linux? How many games does Linux roughly support? How hard is it to use (my friend is even less savy than me)? And, most importantly, is there any real downside to using it compared to using Windows? I give my thanks to anyone willing to explain all of this to my retarded self. Also, any misspellings are to blame on my iPhone 5c (It was cheap).

[Flyguygamer]

Get a cheaper case and better parts. 

Linux is easy to use but few games are supported.

[Jayhawk]

Get a cheaper case and better parts. 

Linux is easy to use but few games are supported.

I would change out the case, however, it comes with decent fans and a lot of room for potential upgrades, like an i5 and Z97 board, with decent looks.

[Flyguygamer]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($75.04 @ Mwave) 

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A58M-HD2 Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard  ($39.06 @ SuperBiiz) 

Memory: Kingston 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($31.45 @ SuperBiiz) 

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 250GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($28.99 @ Amazon) 

Video Card: Diamond Radeon R9 280X 3GB Video Card  ($199.99 @ Newegg) 

Case: HEC Enterprise MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($19.99 @ Newegg) 

Power Supply: Cooler Master Elite V2 550W ATX Power Supply  ($24.99 @ Newegg) 

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit)  ($82.85 @ SuperBiiz) 

Total: $502.36

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-26 13:49 EST-0500

 

 

@Jayhawk

This is a full 280X and windows. The case is the first thing to go on a cheap build, the upgrade is worth less then a good system now.

[Guest]

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($75.04 @ Mwave) 

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A58M-HD2 Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard  ($39.06 @ SuperBiiz) 

Memory: Kingston 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($31.45 @ SuperBiiz) 

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 250GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($28.99 @ Amazon) 

Video Card: Diamond Radeon R9 280X 3GB Video Card  ($199.99 @ Newegg) 

Case: HEC Enterprise MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($19.99 @ Newegg) 

Power Supply: Cooler Master Elite V2 550W ATX Power Supply  ($24.99 @ Newegg) 

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit)  ($82.85 @ SuperBiiz) 

Total: $502.36

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-26 13:49 EST-0500

 

 

@Jayhawk

This is a full 280X and windows. The case is the first thing to go on a cheap build, the upgrade is worth less then a good system now.

 

I say just get a 280 instead of 280x then just OC.

[Pelop17]

So, I'm not savy at all in the Linux department of tech knowledge and had a few questions, but first, I'll tell a little story. I have a friend who, thanks to my new-found group of the pc master race, wants a gaming computer. The problem is that he's on a bit of a small budget, about $500. I'd like to help him here, however, it's a bit hard to build a tight budget build with Windows for $500. With it, the budget might as well be $400. The best I could manage is an Anthlon 860K, a $20 MSI motherboard, 8 GB of ram, and an R7 260X. The rest of the parts are pathetic and not worth listing, save for the Corsair 230T. I love that case. So, now for the questions. Would it be better to save $100 and use Linux? How many games does Linux roughly support? How hard is it to use (my friend is even less savy than me)? And, most importantly, is there any real downside to using it compared to using Windows? I give my thanks to anyone willing to explain all of this to my retarded self. Also, any misspellings are to blame on my iPhone 5c (It was cheap).

some games utilize linux as well

here are some games which can be played in linux systems

 

http://store.steampowered.com/search/?term=&sort_by=_ASC&os=linux&page=1

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($75.04 @ Mwave) 

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A58M-HD2 Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard  ($39.06 @ SuperBiiz) 

Memory: Kingston 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($31.45 @ SuperBiiz) 

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 250GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($28.99 @ Amazon) 

Video Card: Diamond Radeon R9 280X 3GB Video Card  ($199.99 @ Newegg) 

Case: HEC Enterprise MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($19.99 @ Newegg) 

Power Supply: Cooler Master Elite V2 550W ATX Power Supply  ($24.99 @ Newegg) 

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit)  ($82.85 @ SuperBiiz) 

Total: $502.36

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-26 13:49 EST-0500

 

 

@Jayhawk

This is a full 280X and windows. The case is the first thing to go on a cheap build, the upgrade is worth less then a good system now.

 

nice

[Flyguygamer]

I say just get a 280 instead of 280x then just OC.

Good too, then to 8gb ram or an ssd.

 

some games utilize linux as well

here are some games which can be played in linux systems

 

http://store.steampowered.com/search/?term=&sort_by=_ASC&os=linux&page=1

nice

Thanks.

[Flyguygamer]

some games utilize linux as well

here are some games which can be played in linux systems

 

http://store.steampowered.com/search/?term=&sort_by=_ASC&os=linux&page=1

nice

 

 

I say just get a 280 instead of 280x then just OC.

 

 

 

 

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($75.04 @ Mwave) 

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A58M-HD2 Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard  ($39.06 @ SuperBiiz) 

Memory: Kingston 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($31.45 @ SuperBiiz) 

Storage: PNY Optima 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($74.99 @ Newegg) 

Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 280 3GB Dual-X Video Card  ($159.99 @ Newegg) 

Case: HEC Enterprise MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($19.99 @ Newegg) 

Power Supply: Cooler Master Elite V2 550W ATX Power Supply  ($24.99 @ Newegg) 

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit)  ($82.85 @ SuperBiiz) 

Total: $508.36

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-26 13:55 EST-0500

 

 

r9 280 and a 240gb ssd.

[Opcode]

Drop the Windows disks from the budget and have him just run Windows 10 Preview for now.

[Jayhawk]

Drop the Windows disks from the budget and have him just run Windows 10 Preview for now.

Will that work? Would I be able to USB it or would I have to grab his hard drive, put it in my pc, install it, and then put it his pc? Most importantly, would he have to get Windows 10 when it's officially released or would it still work? I ask this assuming you don't need a previous version of Windows in order to use it and that the preview runs games like Windows 7 or 8.1.

[Opcode]

Will that work? Would I be able to USB it or would I have to grab his hard drive, put it in my pc, install it, and then put it his pc? Most importantly, would he have to get Windows 10 when it's officially released or would it still work? I ask this assuming you don't need a previous version of Windows in order to use it and that the preview runs games like Windows 7 or 8.1.

Pretty much all games will run on any Windows platform that has DirectX 9 and newer (e.g. Windows XP+). You should be able to create a bootable USB drive to install Windows 10 from as well. As for upgrading to the final version that's usually a no-go. Microsoft likes to force people to re-install the final version of the operating system in order for it to accept any kind of licencing. So when that time comes he'll simply just have to re-install the operating system. He can run the Preview and eventually the Beta until he can afford a copy. Microsoft usually lets people run the Beta builds for a year before the activation expires.