Linux/gaming build.

[mrchow19910319]

I'm preparing to build a new pc. And I think I am going to duo boot it with windows as well as linux (arch probably).

There are a couple of things I want to address: 

1. I will not add in the dedicated GPU & HDD first. For a couple of reasons, 1st I think I need sometime to save a bit more, 2nd I will run the machine with linux for a few months on iGPU. Windows and gaming is a plus, not the priority. I would love to leave some room for upgrade later next year. 
2. The part I choose was quite specific, if you guys have better option, please say so, and state your reasons. 

 

• Intel i5-7500
• Crucial Ballistix Memory 8GB DDR4-2400  (cheapest I can get)
• WD Green 120GB SSD  (cheapest I can get)
• Fractal Design Node 304 Mini-itx case   (do not change this.. I really wanted this case for a long time)

Here are a few things I am not sure of: 

1. If I need to use iGPU that means ryzen 3 1200 is not gonna happen? I know it is a great chip and it is a LOT cheaper. But I am not gonna add any gpu soon, so... 
2. About the motherboard, I dont know which one to choose, b250 or h270. Is there any difference between these two? Do I have any other option there? 
3. I might add a GPU next year. And probably wait for the newer gen nvidia cards to come out, so for a GTX1060/GTX1070 equivalent, how much watt do I need in my power supply? I am going to buy a SFX powsersupply cos the size of the case, and is corsair SF450 good enough? 

 

Also, I know this might not be the most balances build ever.... but just bare with me here.

[mrchow19910319]

@Lurick @Droidbot @manikyath @KenjiUmino @SCHISCHKA@Sauron

@noahdvs

[mrchow19910319]

@fixitnow @vorticalbox

[Sauron]

You can't use a ryzen 3 without a dedicated graphics card unfortunately. Still, since it's much cheaper than the i5 you could slip in a used card for the time being.

 

There are a couple of differences in features between h270 and b250, if you can't find anything that you need that is missing on the motherboard b250 will be just fine.

 

450 watts should be enough but just barely, I would step it up to at least 500 - running power supplies below full load also helps with efficiency.

[mrchow19910319]

12 minutes ago, Sauron said:

You can't use a ryzen 3 without a dedicated graphics card unfortunately. Still, since it's much cheaper than the i5 you could slip in a used card for the time being.

Is linux gonna do well on AMD's platform??? 

Could I buy a used GT710 or something like that and just use it as a placeholder? 

 

Edit: if lets say that I got a gtx1060 down the line, will the ryzen 3 1200 bottleneck it too much? 

[vorticalbox]

9 minutes ago, mrchow19910319 said:

Is linux gonna do well on AMD's platform??? 

Could I buy a used GT710 or something like that and just use it as a placeholder? 

Linux is doing just fine with ryzen on kernel 4.10 and up.

[martward]

I think 120GB is a bit too little if you are going to dual boot. I would try to add an HDD (you could salvage one from an old laptop if you have one lying around).

I wouldn't go with the i5 if you prefer Ryzen just because you don't want to buy a GPU immediately, just buy a second hand GPU somewhere.

If you are planning to add a GPU I wouldn't go below 500W, just so you have a little room to choose the card you want instead of the one that fits with your PSU. Also you may want to overclock the 1200 at some point, which means you will need a bit more power.

[Sauron]

18 minutes ago, mrchow19910319 said:

Is linux gonna do well on AMD's platform??? 

Could I buy a used GT710 or something like that and just use it as a placeholder? 

 

Edit: if lets say that I got a gtx1060 down the line, will the ryzen 3 1200 bottleneck it too much? 

Linux amd drivers are fine at the moment, and yes, you can use whatever card you want as a placeholder as long as it has the outputs you want.

 

A ryzen 3 will bottleneck a 1060 a little but not to the point where it's not worth it.

[paddy-stone]

^Agree

 

Depends on your use case of course, but haven't had any problems with linux with my 1700, and have tried many distros. I am admittedly NOT an advanced user of linux though, I use a few CLI commands for things, but mostly prefer GUI programs and such. On my servers I use CLI more, but not using ryzen on them ATM anyway.

 

There was a very specific fault found in ryzen, but it wasn't limited to linux, but has been fixed IIRC.

[mrchow19910319]

Just now, Sauron said:

Linux amd drivers are fine at the moment, and yes, you can use whatever card you want as a placeholder as long as it has the outputs you want.

 

A ryzen 3 will bottleneck a 1060 a little but not to the point where it's not worth it.

Thank you so much. I am using a 1440p monitor... so does that help the bottleneck or the otherway around??  

[mrchow19910319]

1 minute ago, paddy-stone said:

 

Thanks for the info! 

[Sauron]

Just now, mrchow19910319 said:

Thank you so much. I am using a 1440p monitor... so does that help the bottleneck or the otherway around??  

It mitigates cpu bottlenecks compared to, say, 1080p since more of the load is on the graphics card (hence why at 4k I feel no need whatsoever to upgrade my 2011 cpu).

[mrchow19910319]

4 minutes ago, martward said:

 

I will add another SSD down the line. Probably next year. So that two of my systems are on seperate drives. I am just trying to spread the spending a little bit. 

[vorticalbox]

32 minutes ago, martward said:

I think 120GB is a bit too little if you are going to dual boot. I would try to add an HDD (you could salvage one from an old laptop if you have one lying around).

I wouldn't go with the i5 if you prefer Ryzen just because you don't want to buy a GPU immediately, just buy a second hand GPU somewhere.

If you are planning to add a GPU I wouldn't go below 500W, just so you have a little room to choose the card you want instead of the one that fits with your PSU. Also you may want to overclock the 1200 at some point, which means you will need a bit more power.

I agree my fresh windows 10 + updates in a VM is eating 56GB of it's 64GB drive.

[KenjiUmino]

1 hour ago, mrchow19910319 said:

1. If I need to use iGPU that means ryzen 3 1200 is not gonna happen? I know it is a great chip and it is a LOT cheaper. But I am not gonna add any gpu soon, so... 

well you COULD get an AM4 APU first and buy the ryzen and gpu later but i don't recommend it.

 

these APUs are still based on shitty faildozer technology and i'd rather try to get a used geforce GT 7x0 as cheap as possible. 

 

1 hour ago, mrchow19910319 said:

Windows and gaming is a plus, not the priority.

well, linux and gaming is a thing.

[mrchow19910319]

36 minutes ago, KenjiUmino said:

get a used geforce GT 7x0 as cheap as possible. 

 

 

Yeah. I can get a gt210 for dirt cheap. 

[noahdvs]

Historically, Nvidia has been better for 3D graphics on Linux, but with recent Mesa releases, AMD has really caught up. However, the proprietary Nvidia driver can be a real PITA sometimes and it doesn't always support Linux features/protocols as well as Mesa drivers do. For instance, Nvidia has poor Wayland support. There is an open source Nvidia driver called Nouveau, but Nvidia forces the developers of that driver to reverse engineer things and 3D performance is way worse than the proprietary Nvidia drivers. After having to deal with Nvidia's shit on my laptop, this accurately describes how I feel:

I think you'll have a better time with an AMD RX400/500 series graphics card in the long run. It'll even work out of the box if you use the open source drivers. The reason why the open source driver for AMD has improved so much is because AMD now contributes to it. AMD still has their own proprietary AMDGPU-Pro driver, but that's not intended for gamers or average users.

[KenjiUmino]

27 minutes ago, mrchow19910319 said:

Yeah. I can get a gt210 for dirt cheap. 

200 series is a bit too old for my taste. no DX 11 and all that ... i also don't know how good driver support is on linux. nouveau does support the Gt 210's chip but i could not find any definitie information on how good.

[mrchow19910319]

7 minutes ago, noahdvs said:

 

Hey, thanks for the info. I've seen that video before... the longer version haha. 

I used to own a RX480 before, however I personally think that it runs too hot for my liking. 

Not even mention that this time I am gonna build a itx system.

 

However after what you've said, I am a little confused. 

Are nvidia's geforce series card gonna work in linux environment at all? 

I don't want to buy a 300 dollar card that linux does not support. I am planning to use arch. 

[mrchow19910319]

3 minutes ago, KenjiUmino said:

200 series is a bit too old for my taste. no DX 11 and all that ... i also don't know how good driver support is on linux. nouveau does support the Gt 210's chip but i could not find any definitie information on how good.

Oh wow. thanks for the heads up. What about a GT710? I have no idea when it comes to linux's driver for GPU... please elaborate on that one. 

[noahdvs]

Just now, mrchow19910319 said:

Hey, thanks for the info. I've seen that video before... the longer version haha. 

I used to own a RX480 before, however I personally think that it runs too hot for my liking. 

Not even mention that this time I am gonna build a itx system.

 

However after what you've said, I am a little confused. 

Are nvidia's geforce series card gonna work in linux environment at all? 

I don't want to buy a 300 dollar card that linux does not support. I am planning to use arch. 

They will work and will work for the most part, but they won't do everything right and won't always work well with the latest kernel if you use a rolling release distro (Arch, openSUSE Tumbleweed, Gentoo).

[noahdvs]

I think Nvidia works better with slower paced distros like Ubuntu where the kernel doesn't change as often and the latest stuff isn't used. AMD should keep up with your system since their driver will update along with everything else.

[KenjiUmino]

5 minutes ago, mrchow19910319 said:

Oh wow. thanks for the heads up. What about a GT710? I have no idea when it comes to linux's driver for GPU... please elaborate on that one. 

don't have much hands on experience here either but i have been told today that nouveau drivers have improved a lot for newer cards.

 

i think my workmate uses a 700 series card in his main rig and he is all about linux.

i will ask him if i see him tomorrow

[mrchow19910319]

3 minutes ago, noahdvs said:

I think Nvidia works better with slower paced distros like Ubuntu where the kernel doesn't change as often and the latest stuff isn't used. AMD should keep up with your system since their driver will update along with everything else.

I see. I think I will try to use arch and see whether it works, or how well it works. 

If it is really not for my liking or it acts up too much, I can switch to ubuntu. 

 

Anyway, I will not get a GPU until next year. 

Just for the placeholder card, what do you recommend? A GT710 will do the trick? 

[mrchow19910319]

2 minutes ago, KenjiUmino said:

i think my workmate uses a 700 series card in his main rig and he is all about linux.

i will ask him if i see him tomorrow

Oh wow. Thanks!