Building a new Linux box (probably Debian)

[Algeh]

I've decided it's time for a new computer. I tend to build/upgrade my computers by scrounging around my relatives' cast-off computer parts and/or buying surplus machines from local businesses when they upgrade, but, tragically, my usual sources seem to have switched to laptops in the past few years so it looks like I'll have to actually buy my own case and motherboard this time. It's been a loooooong time since I last bought a computer (the last computer I bought brand-new ran Windows 98, which is also the most recent version of Windows I bought a license for), so I'm not really sure where to start buying rather than scrounging and I haven't been keeping up with the latest trends in modern computer parts.

I don't need something high-end, but I'm not broke and I don't need to be cheap for the sake of being cheap.

What I use my computer to do:

• Browse the non-video portions of the internet (I mostly hang out here and at a few blogs - I'm not that interested in watching videos for various reasons and am more of a reader)
• Store a LOT of high quality audio recordings (I make archival recordings of live filk using a digital audio recorder - I end up with about 100 gigs a year depending on how many conventions I go to - I'm thinking I'll want 2 mirrored 2TB drives in the new box but am open to suggestions)
• Edit and compress aforementioned audio recordings
• Play Freeciv or some other equally time-wasting activity (I don't play any modern games and certainly don't need a gaming-focused computer)

I will probably go with Debian for a Linux distro this time, but am open to suggestions on that part too. (I've run various flavors of Linux for a long time, and don't see a compelling reason not to go with Linux again this time.)

It might be nice to also have this new box be able to be a DVR, but that would depend on how obnoxious that would be to get set up and how much the extra computer parts needed would cost. (I'm moving and will only have broadcast TV rather than cable after I move, which I will probably only use to watch soccer occasionally. Last time I lived alone I taped something off-air about once a year, and I have a digital converter box for my VCR so I'm really only willing to put so much effort into modernizing this process given how rarely I'd use it. I think the last thing I taped was an Olympics Closing Ceremony because I only wanted to watch parts of it rather than the whole thing.)

Is there a particularly good vendor to buy through given that I want Linux rather Windows? I'm comfortable with the idea of building the computer myself from parts but wouldn't object to something pre-built if it came with either no OS or Linux rather than Windows/Apple/Chrome OS. I'd prefer not to pay for an OS I won't be using, and I have no need for a dual-boot system since I have a work-issued Windows laptop I can use for anything that won't work under Linux.

I know I want:

• Lots of hard drive space (at least 2TB, more would be better), probably mirrored as one layer of my back-up strategy
• Output to proper speakers, not just a headphone jack
• Card reader that reads SD cards on the front of the case
• CD burner (I have several of these lying around already, but wouldn't mind a newer one - I do still buy a lot of music on CD from filkers that I need to rip and I burn CDs of things I've recorded when the performers want a copy - thumb drives are not cheap enough that I'm willing to routinely give them away as I do with CDs)
• Support for a dual-monitor setup

I already have 2 perfectly good monitors (for what I use them for), so I don't need to buy those new. I might go ahead and get a new keyboard and mouse while I'm ordering stuff, but don't need fancy ones. I'm torn on getting new "computer speakers" versus putting the computer in the same room as my "real" speakers as a long-term plan (the really long term plan also involves getting a decent live performance sound mixing board, microphones, and suitable speakers/monitors/etc for hosting house concerts, but that's not happening this year - I assume adding a suitable sound card to the computer for multi-track audio capture from such a sound board would be more pricey than I want for this build given that I'm probably a few years away from owning the board I need to make use of it, but I could be wrong). In the short term, one of my "monitors" is actually a television and thus has built-in low quality speakers.

[gomipile]

Is there a particularly good vendor to buy through given that I want Linux rather Windows?

Newegg if you're building or buying a barebones system, etc. You might find a good enough deal on a PC with Windows already installed that you won't mind that the Windows licence is wasted on you. Newegg's customer service is amazing, and they will often help you out if the manufacturer flakes out on you.


System76 is nice, but they only sell machines with Ubuntu preinstalled. If you're okay with Ubuntu, or you just want a guarantee that all components have Linux drivers, they're a good option.

[LokeyITP]

Almost anything will meet those demands except you'll want a tvtuner card that I have no experience with.

Can look at Puget System build lists for stuff that's quiet, Logical Increments for good price points. I run more demanding things on an i6500 cpu, GTX950 vid, in a case with dust filters (some sound dampening) and I've never heard it make a peep except for the admittedly not ideal dvd drive. Probably won't get below US$500 with those parts, but can get pretty close.

[factotum]

System76 is nice, but they only sell machines with Ubuntu preinstalled. If you're okay with Ubuntu, or you just want a guarantee that all components have Linux drivers, they're a good option.

Ubuntu is based on Debian anyway, so why not? Prefer Mint myself because it comes by default with the Cinnamon UI, but I think you can also use that UI on other distros.

One thing I would definitely suggest is getting a smaller SSD to install the OS on and have a larger 2Tb spinning rust drive for the larger data files. You'll be amazed at the difference in speed, even using Linux which arguably doesn't thrash the disk quite as much when loading as Windows does--I have an SSD in my laptop running Linux, and it boots up in about 10 seconds.

[137beth]

If you are building yourself, PC Part Picker is a decent site for searching for compatible parts, and is meant to be reasonably beginner-friendly. It includes links to various online vendors as well. I think they crowd-source their compatibility checker...I don't know how accurate it is. For components, the two most reliable sellers IMO are Newegg and Amazon.

There are a handful of computer vendors that ship computers with Debian pre-installed. They aren't necessarily cheaper than buying a computer with equivalent hardware and Windows pre-installed, though.

Prefer Mint myself because it comes by default with the Cinnamon UI, but I think you can also use that UI on other distros.

I know in the case of Fedora at least there is a spin with Cinnamon pre-installed. In the case of Debian, a Cinnamon package exists, but I don't know if you can get a Debian-with-Cinnamon installation image directly or if you have to install Debian with a different DE first before installing Cinnamon.

[Algeh]

There are a handful of computer vendors that ship computers with Debian pre-installed. They aren't necessarily cheaper than buying a computer with equivalent hardware and Windows pre-installed, though.

Hmm, one of those is actually local to my area. I might buy from them just to support a local business and save myself the hassle of building a computer right now.

It didn't occur to me to look at Debian's website to see who sold it pre-installed. I am obviously quite out of the computer-buying circuit these days.

[wumpus]

One word of warning: AMD's recent powerhouse, Ryzen, appears to have a bug that manifests in Linux (but not windows). AMD really needs to quash this, but it is one of those nasty "if you absolutely hammer it, you might get an error every few hours*" that are unbelievably difficult to debug (they *wish* it happend one in a million times. Try one in a trillion. But *way* too often for modern machines).

To be honest, the real catch is making sure your machine can drive two monitors (a raspberry pi could presumably run everything else you mentioned). I'd recommend some sort of SSD (*anything* will be big enough. It looks like I have 32G for / and another 16G for /home (earlier it was smaller than that, mostly because I wanted to dual boot into windows and windows is pretty picky about what has to be on C:).. Spinning media is somewhere on /media/dump/...

I'd probably go with an AMD ALU (CPU+GPU in one chip) for what you are asking for (the GPU tends to be a bit more powerful than Intel in desktops systems that draw more power), but it isn't a huge thing. Intel pentium (4 thread) CPUs are also amazing devices for very little money (and I *think* Intel is more serious about Open Source drives, but I doubt they really can compete graphics wise with the AMD ALUs). The CPU used in the AMD ALU are the old style and considerably less powerful than the Ryzen, but don't have the Linux bug.

Output to proper speakers: As far as I know, this doesn't exist. Any modern computer is only going to produce audio over a headphone jack or a USB port (ethernet is also possible, but that just kicks the can down to the "computer" that recieves it). The best bet is a sepearate amplifier for this (my guess is that serious audio designers will want to take USB, do the digital-analog-conversion themselves (in a shielded zone) and then amplify the analog signal. I'd expect the headphone jack to have some pretty wierd interference on it, but I can't hear it myself). I haven't looked into audio for a long time, but thought that most speakers plugged into [mini] headphone jacks for a long time. You might have to be a lot more specific on this, and I'm curious if the local Linux show had any ideas.

Installing Linux shouldn't be hard (and is typically easier than installing windows). Really, windows needs a godawful authentication code to install and doesn't include all the 'needed stuff' (you'll spend a ton of time downloading things like Chrome and pdf readers). Linux doesn't need any codes and comes with more included stuff than you can shake a stick at (and still fits in a few gigabytes). The only real issue comes if you wanted debian *testing*, something the debian people appear to make deliberately hard. If you want something like that, I'd recommend either Mint or possibly LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition), although I don't know how that works if you try to update all the debian parts.

[tyckspoon]

Output to proper speakers: As far as I know, this doesn't exist. Any modern computer is only going to produce audio over a headphone jack or a USB port (ethernet is also possible, but that just kicks the can down to the "computer" that recieves it). The best bet is a sepearate amplifier for this (my guess is that serious audio designers will want to take USB, do the digital-analog-conversion themselves (in a shielded zone) and then amplify the analog signal. I'd expect the headphone jack to have some pretty wierd interference on it, but I can't hear it myself). I haven't looked into audio for a long time, but thought that most speakers plugged into [mini] headphone jacks for a long time. You might have to be a lot more specific on this, and I'm curious if the local Linux show had any ideas.

Computer speakers mostly take 3.5mm headphone jack; some of the fancier ones will also take some form of digital input. Dedicated speakers of the variety you'd set up for something like a home theater arrangement or old-fashioned dedicated listening space generally still hook up with some variant of old school speaker wire. Computers don't put out that strong a signal, tho, so you probably want to send the source to a receiver or amplifier of some variety before you route out to the speakers anyway, and you can probably do that with 3.5mm mini-stereo jacks into a Line In or AUX labeled input. If you want a digital output from the computer, you can either try to find a motherboard that supports it (I've seen SPDIF output on a few media-focused motherboard editions) or go with a dedicated add-in soundcard with the desired functions; they've become a niche market, but they do still exist and this pretty much is their niche. No idea about Linux support on them, tho.

(Another option: use HDMI video out, which includes the audio channel, and run it through a splitter device that will separate the audio and video channels so you can then send the audio wherever you want it to be.)