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.

  • AmbiguousProps@lemmy.todayEnglish
    315·
    2 个月前

    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)@beehaw.org
      9·
      2 个月前

      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.

      • AmbiguousProps@lemmy.todayEnglish
        4·
        2 个月前

        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@lemmy.zipEnglish
          2·
          2 个月前

          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.

        • jlow (he/him)@beehaw.org
          2·
          2 个月前

          For some reason my drawing tablet (Huion Kamvas 13) isn’t recognised by Ublue/Bazzite but works ootb on Kinoite. Some very helpful people on Ublue-Discord did some investigation and there’s a Github issue but it’s unresolved, there was speculation that it might be something to do with Surface tablet settings missing or overriding something, can’t quite remember.

            • jlow (he/him)@beehaw.org
              2·
              2 个月前

              Yeah, pretty happy with it so far, not having to worry about an update making the computer unusable until you reinstalled everything is very nice!

  • Julian@lemm.eeEnglish
    20·
    2 个月前

    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.

  • The Hobbyist@lemmy.zip
    13·
    2 个月前

    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 :(

    • Interstellar_1@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
      8·
      2 个月前

      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)@beehaw.org
        3·
        2 个月前

        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.

        • jlow (he/him)@beehaw.org
          1·
          2 个月前

          Mh, taking another looks at Blender benchmarks ( https://opendata.blender.org ), highest Nvidia median score is 12k (4090), the one I have atm (4070) has a score of 7.2k, had a laptop with a mobile 4080 before (5.7k). I haven’t really noticed any difference between them, tbh, so take this next bit with a giant bit of salt: Highest Amd score is 3.9k for a AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX (I know nothing about Amd GPUs, most reviews are from 2022/23), not really sure what to make of this but it doesn’t look too good for Amd?

          • HumanPenguin@feddit.ukEnglish
            2·
            2 个月前

            High use Blender users tend to avoid AMD for the reasons you point out.

            This leads to less updates due to amd users not being to interested in the community.

            It is an issuw without any practicle solution. Because as I need a long overdue update. Again nvidia seems the only real choice.

            Everyone is sorta forced to do that unless we can convince amd users to just try out blender and submit results.

            So hi any AMD users who dont care about blender.

            Give it a try and submit performance data please.

  • tabular@lemmy.worldEnglish
    13·
    2 个月前

    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).

  • kinship@lemmy.sdf.org
    12·
    2 个月前

    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.

  • bizarroland@fedia.io
    9·
    2 个月前

    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.

    • Interstellar_1@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
      6·
      2 个月前

      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@reddthat.com
        2·
        2 个月前

        Also, wait until Christmas if you can. Most computer parts have their deepest sale then (it’s not Black Friday, surprisingly).

        • Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
          2·
          2 个月前

          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@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      4·
      2 个月前

      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@forum.uncomfortable.businessEnglish
        3·
        2 个月前

        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@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
          1·
          2 个月前

          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@forum.uncomfortable.businessEnglish
            3·
            2 个月前

            The really fun ones were the Deer PSUs.

            They existed in one of two conditions:

            1. Destroyed your entire computer, and currently on fire
            2. About to destroy your entire computer, and maybe on fire
  • spittingimage@lemmy.world
    9·
    2 个月前

    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!

  • data1701d (He/Him)@startrek.websiteEnglish
    9·
    2 个月前

    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.

    • Interstellar_1@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
      4·
      2 个月前

      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.

  • Eugenia@lemmy.mlEnglish
    8·
    2 个月前

    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.

  • StanislavP@lemmy.world
    91·
    2 个月前

    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).

    • accideath@lemmy.world
      3·
      2 个月前

      I wouldn’t recommend Intel CPUs (at least the last two gens) either but if all that matters to you in a GPU is hardware encoding (quality or codec support), like for a Jellyfin server, Intel ARC is unbeatable.

  • gomp@lemmy.ml
    7·
    2 个月前

    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?

  • Nibodhika@lemmy.world
    7·
    2 个月前

    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.

    • schizo@forum.uncomfortable.businessEnglish
      7·
      2 个月前

      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.

  • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    71·
    2 个月前

    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.