Advice on building a Linux box

[Osiris]

Advice on building a Linux box

I get a lot of questions on Linux hardware: “What's the best piece of hardware X for Linux?” “Should I go route A since I'm using Linux?” Of course not everyone builds their own computer. But there are a fair number of us out there that would rather keep as much control over the selection of their machines components as they can. And there is something to be said about hand-picking your components. But which video card? Which sound card? Which networking card? Processor? Motherboard? Will it all work with Linux? You know it will work with Windows…but with Linux there can be some gray area.
In this article I am going to show you how I go about putting together a machine that will use the Linux operating system. I understand that this type of topic is very subjective, so there will be plenty of disagreements. But that is part of the fun and the reason why we have comments available on this site. So, without further adieu, let's get to building.

 

[Jayce]

Advice on building a Linux box

I get a lot of questions on Linux hardware: “What's the best piece of hardware X for Linux?” “Should I go route A since I'm using Linux?” Of course not everyone builds their own computer. But there are a fair number of us out there that would rather keep as much control over the selection of their machines components as they can. And there is something to be said about hand-picking your components. But which video card? Which sound card? Which networking card? Processor? Motherboard? Will it all work with Linux? You know it will work with Windows…but with Linux there can be some gray area.
In this article I am going to show you how I go about putting together a machine that will use the Linux operating system. I understand that this type of topic is very subjective, so there will be plenty of disagreements. But that is part of the fun and the reason why we have comments available on this site. So, without further adieu, let's get to building.

Home Page - Ubuntu Linux Hardware Compatibility List is a great place to see if other people had success running Ubuntu on certain pieces of hardware. I haven't found a comparable site like this that Ubuntu has for other distros, but I know Fedora has a list of problematic hardware, so you can at least use that to check out and see if a piece of hardware is on there and avoid it. That's where I found out a certain Intel video card had issues with Fedora's plymouth scheming, which effected my laptop when I was testing Fedora.

Ironically, I had to laugh at the "You know it will work with Windows, but Linux is a gray area" comment. My system (sound card in particular) is living proof that sometimes, things work in Linux, but not Windows. Not trying to stab at Windows here, since it was the manufacturer's fault that drivers didn't exist for 64 bit Vista, but it was still a -1 for Windows while Linux supported it with 64 bit out of box.

Moral of the story is - never assume. Whether it's 32/64 bit, XP, 7, Linux or what have you, do your research WHENEVER you build your own computer to make sure your hardware will be supported.

 

[Gotgull]

Well you definitely need to know the specs of your machine before running Linux on it, and with modern distro's if your computer doesn't support high resolutions above 1024x768 you most likely will find that the live cd will not boot up on your machine, unless it has a boot option for different video modes. I don't understand why they use such high resolutions when they make a live cd but that seems to be the norm if it was me I would stick with 800x600 as a standard mode that most computers would have no problem with at all.

 

[Jayce]

Well you definitely need to know the specs of your machine before running Linux on it, and with modern distro's if your computer doesn't support high resolutions above 1024x768 you most likely will find that the live cd will not boot up on your machine, unless it has a boot option for different video modes. I don't understand why they use such high resolutions when they make a live cd but that seems to be the norm if it was me I would stick with 800x600 as a standard mode that most computers would have no problem with at all.

I never ran into an issue with LiveCDs, even on different distro besides Ubuntu. On older systems, if it can't handle the resolution I just get black bars on the edge of the screen... as if I only have a 17" viewable area on a 24" screen.

I think knowing what you're putting into your custom build and knowing that drivers exist are where it counts. I don't see anything exclusive to Linux or exclusive to Windows. I've built custom rigs for both sides of the operating system arena, and each time the same stipulations still applied. The only exclusive thing I would argue is Mac, since Mac hardware and OSX go hand-in-hand. But that also leaves you unable to really build a custom Mac rig either.