[ale] art/science of choosing cpu, motherboard, mem for a pc, some guidance

Jim Kinney jim.kinney at gmail.com
Tue Sep 5 07:55:42 EDT 2017


+1 on the buy new but not newest release. Most mobos work. Specific chips can be troublesome. The more "all in one" the harder to support.

Microcenter in Duluth has been quite ok with rebooting their demo machines with a live cd to check Linux compatibility. For a while the manager would stand with me and take notes and later put a sticker up that the laptop worked with linux (or needed wifi driver).

On September 5, 2017 12:11:02 AM EDT, Jay Lozier <jslozier at gmail.com> wrote:
>Hi
>
>I did search on Linux motherboards and a couple of hits I got were
>
>http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/262268-30-motherboard-linux
>
>https://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=category&item=Motherboards
>
>https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-hardware-18/best-motherboard-for-linux-488599/
>
>Tom's hardware suggests getting a mobo, CPU, etc. that are newish but 
>not just released. The thinking is a just released item may not have
>all 
>the drivers ready for Linux.
>
>Phronix has user reports of mobo others have found to work with Linux.
>
>Linux questions seems to indicate that best idea is to search "mobo 
>Linux problems" to see what pops but that most mobos work
>
>
>On 09/04/2017 11:27 PM, Narahari 'n' Savitha wrote:
>> Thank you folks for the suggestion on the craigslist approach.
>> Where can I check compatibility with Linux for motherboards ?
>>
>> On Mon, Sep 4, 2017 at 11:04 PM, Jim Kinney <jim.kinney at gmail.com 
>> <mailto:jim.kinney at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>>     I would NOT buy a new cpu from craigslist. It comes with no
>>     warranty and CPUs have infant mortality like hard drives. Unless
>>     you're replicating/replacing an existing/explicit system, buy
>cpu,
>>     ram, mobo from a dealer than can provide a warranty. Static
>damage
>>     is subtle and craigslist doesn't do dealer reputation tracking.
>>
>>
>>     On September 4, 2017 9:07:13 PM EDT, Narahari 'n' Savitha
>>     <savithari at gmail.com <mailto:savithari at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>>         As always, Thank You DJ.
>>
>>         I am not that concerned about the power aspect of this whole
>>         thing.
>>
>>         I found this CPU Intel Core i7 2600 (3.8Ghz) CPU
>>        
><https://atlanta.craigslist.org/nat/sop/d/intel-core-ighz-cpu/6284494809.html> for
>>         sale on craigslist.
>>
>>         This CPU has a Pass score of 8217.  I presume purchasing the
>>         CPU on craigslist is safe in terms of reliability.
>>
>>         I have to purchase cooler, paste for the motherboard.
>>
>>         Where can I check compat issues of Motherboard with Linux ?
>>
>>         On Mon, Sep 4, 2017 at 7:33 PM, DJ-Pfulio <DJPfulio at jdpfu.com
>>         <mailto:DJPfulio at jdpfu.com>> wrote:
>>
>>             Look at other builds on other sites.  Look at their parts
>>             list.  Do you
>>             have all those things?
>>             Case, PSU, compatible video card, HDDs, cables, power
>>             cords, .... CPU
>>             thermal paste?  Oh - and a CPU cooler?  Some CPUs come
>>             with a cooler,
>>             others do not.  Usually old CPU coolers cannot be used,
>>             but old ATX
>>             cases and ATX PSUs work fine, unless you have a $500 GPU
>>             that needs 2
>>             extra power connections to work.
>>
>>             I have never needed more than 10G of RAM. My main VM
>>             server has 16G, but
>>             8G is always used for disk buffers. I think having more
>is
>>             a waste,
>>             unless it is cheap.  DDR3 is fairly cheap. DDR4, not so
>>             much.  My media
>>             center server (not a player) has 8G.
>>
>>             OC is 100% optional.  You only need a MB that supports it
>>             if you want to
>>             do it.
>>
>>             Did you leave CPU performance overhead for the extra
>>             non-transcoding
>>             things you want?  You might be able to assign specific
>>             CPUs to specific
>>             VMs, if that works on these AMD CPUs.
>>
>>             Did you consider the CPU watts in your calculations?  AMD
>>             has a history
>>             of using 30-50% more power.  Is that acceptable?  The
>>             newer Ryzen CPUs
>>             were 125, 95, and 65W (I think).  I was specifically
>>             picking a 65W
>>             version that included a CPU cooler.
>>
>>             I would search for Linux compatibility for that
>>             motherboard and whatever
>>             GPU you've got.  Support for some older AMD Radeon GPUs
>>             has been dropped.
>>
>>             On 09/04/2017 06:02 PM, Narahari 'n' Savitha wrote:
>>             > Need to pick your brains on finding the best CPU/MB/MEM
>>             combo.  Please help.
>>             >
>>             > Let me start off saying I am taking a cheap route.
>>             >
>>             > Went to get Passmark of 5500 and above from
>>             > https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php
>>             <https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php>
>>             >
>>             > Cheapest reasonable cpu at Microcenter with these
>>             ratings.  Prices below
>>             > are at Microcenter.
>>             >
>>             > Intel Core i3-7100 @ 3.90GHz 5895 $96
>>             > AMD FX-8320E Eight-Core     7509 $80
>>             > AMD FX-8350 Eight-Core  8942 $100
>>             >
>>             > If I pick the cheapest one at $80, I work from there to
>>             motherboard on
>>             > pcpartpicker.
>>             >
>>             > Here I see many, but what criterion for motherboard,
>>             Star ratings ?
>>             > Dont know if video is built in?  I dont need video
>>             builtin since I have
>>             > vid card
>>             > 4 mem slots is good.  Atleast 32G supported is a good
>>             thing to consider
>>             > right
>>             >
>>             > I picked Gigabyte
>>             >
>>            
>(https://pcpartpicker.com/product/T69KHx/gigabyte-motherboard-ga78lmtusb3
>>            
><https://pcpartpicker.com/product/T69KHx/gigabyte-motherboard-ga78lmtusb3>)
>>             > for $55, comments say not overclockable but CPU in
>>             microcenter is Black
>>             > Edition aka Overclockable, so need OC board right ?
>>             (cant find that info
>>             > on the summary page though for mother boards.)
>>             >
>>             > From here I worked towards DDR3 2400 memory.  This is
>>             Corsair 16G $120.
>>             >
>>             > Is this pretty much it ?
>>             >
>>             > My cost is coming to $260.
>>             >
>>             > Is the approach I am taking correct ?
>>             >
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