Building a new tower, hardware recommendations.

[Vic20]

Now that I've had my feet wet on getting used to Linux Mint on an old resurrected emachine, I want to move my computing up a notch and put something up to modern specs and not have to deal with work arounds to get the hardware working correctly. I will be doing some music recording/editing and video but mainly it's going to be used as a business machine.

Recommendations for motherboard, processor, video card, etc. would be helpful, and tried and true with Linux Mint ahead of time to take out the guess work.

[carum carvi]

I want to move my computing up a notch and put something up to modern specs and not have to deal with work arounds to get the hardware working correctly.

New hardware is a weak point of Linux in general. Older hardware gets much better support and has been tried and tested. I have read several posts of new LinuxMint users who just bought a brand new computer only to realise that they encounter difficulties with hardware conflicts.

My simple advice, shared by many other enthusiastic Thinkpad fans on this forum: buy a secondhand Lenovo Thinkpad T430 or T440. (6 to 4 years old). They are built like a tank. Perfectly suited for a business environment. But most of all: those T430 / 440 series work flawlessly with Linux, while many new computers will not have flawless hardware compatibility. A Lenovo Thinkpad T430 / T440 series will give you a guaranteed trouble free pleasurable Linux experience. They can be found everywhere for 150 to 250 dollars. They have easily replaceable parts. They have a great support forum that has given many users a great working second hand computer for many years on end...

[LanceM]

I can positively vouch for the following hardware:
Mobo: Asrock Z390 Pro 4 series (meaning ITX, micro ATX, or ATX form factor)
CPU with 630 integrated graphics (no discrete card needed for your listed use): Intel Core i5-8500 Desktop Processor 6 Core
RAM: 2 sticks of DDR4 Memory in Gskill, Kingston, or Crucial brand and just go with the default motherboard settings (no overclock)
I have built several of these recently and they work flawlessly with Mint 19x

[deepakdeshp]

https://community.linuxmint.com/hardware

[gittiest personITW]

I like my X470 chipset
Decided to go AMD - got so p1ss3d off with the extra 1pin when wanting to upgrade. (1150 vs 1151):
Wouldn't normally go for this make but I did this time because of the amount of SATA ports on it:
Microstar Gaming Pro Carbon
Ryzen (best you can afford - but not the newest - that would be throwing money away)
Good RAM (16GB minimum) (Crucial/Corsair/Samsung for instance)
Good SSD (Samsung/Crucial for example) as that will be your weakest link.
Most graphics cards you can get readily will be more than sufficient to do 2D movie editing so wouldn't bother with the latest expensive ones.
Proper PSU - Possibly the most overlooked item. Spend quite a bit of cash on this - but don't overbuy. If you are using 300W get an excellent 450W model.
No point in getting an 800W if you don't have the hardware to go with it.

The only real hardware problem I had was with my old USB2 Akasa card-reader but managed to fix that.

[HaveaMint]

I haven't had any compatibility problems with this hardware and is pretty quick with Mint XFCE.Excluding the actual life span of the hardware (Long time I hope) the speed of this setup should last many years.

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System:
  Host: main Kernel: 4.15.0-64-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc 
  v: 7.4.0 Desktop: Xfce 4.12.3 Distro: Linux Mint 19.2 Tina 
  base: Ubuntu 18.04 bionic 
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: ASRock model: 970A-G/3.1 serial: <filter> 
  UEFI: American Megatrends v: P1.20 date: 01/12/2016 
CPU:
  Topology: 8-Core model: AMD FX-8350 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Bulldozer 
  L2 cache: 2048 KiB 
  flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm 
  bogomips: 64002 
  Speed: 1394 MHz min/max: 1400/4000 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1385 2: 1396 
  3: 1381 4: 1398 5: 1399 6: 1395 7: 1379 8: 1395 
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GK104 [GeForce GTX 660 Ti] vendor: eVga.com. 
  driver: nvidia v: 430.26 bus ID: 01:00.0 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.19.6 driver: nvidia 
  unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nouveau,vesa resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GTX 660 Ti/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 430.26 
  direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD SBx00 Azalia vendor: ASRock driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
  bus ID: 00:14.2 
  Device-2: NVIDIA GK104 HDMI Audio vendor: eVga.com. driver: snd_hda_intel 
  v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.1 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.15.0-64-generic 
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet 
  vendor: ASRock driver: r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI port: d000 bus ID: 06:00.0 
  IF: enp6s0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 1.14 TiB used: 219.58 GiB (18.9%) 
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Samsung model: SSD 860 EVO 250GB size: 232.89 GiB 
  ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: Western Digital model: WD10EZEX-08WN4A0 
  size: 931.51 GiB 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 41.99 GiB used: 12.41 GiB (29.5%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2 
  ID-2: /home size: 178.61 GiB used: 9.50 GiB (5.3%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda3 
  ID-3: swap-1 size: 5.59 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sdb4 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 21.1 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 36 C 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: nvidia fan: 30% 
Info:
  Processes: 229 Uptime: 4h 38m Memory: 17.60 GiB used: 1.05 GiB (6.0%) 
  Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 7.4.0 Shell: bash v: 4.4.20 
  inxi: 3.0.32 

[trapperjohn]

Bleading-edge hardware from Asus works out of the box for me every time. (and... I don't work for them.)

I have had very good luck (over 50 builds) using Asus ROG boards. I have had no problem with Ryzen processors. My home desktop is a Crosshair board but the less expensive Strix boards work well.

I prefer AMD processors.

When your build is complete, update the BIOS before doing your OS install.

Go to https://pcpartpicker.com/ to build your system on paper.

[Vic20]

Thank you all for your input and direction, I have a lot to think about and look over. After running the gambit with this emachine, seeing how well most of the pieces are out of the box from mint working, while windows had me going through hell on getting it from a reformat to xp while it's native is vista, this support here and has been from the older systems is not wasted, most open sourced drivers did well, that added cheap video card was a bit of a pain to figure out mandatded since onboard on these do not work well, but some discarded tower is now rocking Linux Mint right now, and I am more motivated to build a proper box worthy of it as an OS.

[AndyMH]

I agree about Thinkpads and the T430 (I have three ), but I built my own desktop about a year ago. I went with intel on the basis that it was more likely to work with linux (i5-8400) and for graphics a GTX1080. Motherboard was a MSI B360:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07 ... UTF8&psc=1

Didn't have any problems.

[Vic20]

Just wow today. I visited my relatives place, they do electronic recycling and what people dropped off regularly, my head is spinning upon. Needless to say,. I have the old gear on the super cheap, and it was too much tearing into it all, seeing the potential today. Basically it's a river of hardware, motherboards, video cards, ram, on and on like that, in their minds free and in mine, wow, gold mine. I pulled a random box from "this weeks or few days" donations, yanked a video card, $3.00 was my cost, going to switch it out next, will be a nice upgrade from 128 to 512... and I spent too much lol. I am going to turn them on to this place, I see a good fit, we are dealing with the old gear some what, people are literally tossing it, this is kid in a candy shop at this stage.

[jglen490]

Built mine, not super powerful, works great for everything I need.

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inxi -S
System:    Host: john-Desktop Kernel: 5.0.0-29-generic x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.12.9
           Distro: Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS
john@john-Desktop:/boot$ inxi -M
Machine:   Device: desktop System: Gigabyte product: N/A serial: N/A
           Mobo: Gigabyte model: B150M-D3H-CF v: x.x serial: N/A UEFI: American Megatrends v: F5 date: 11/02/2015
john@john-Desktop:/boot$ inxi -F
System:    Host: john-Desktop Kernel: 5.0.0-29-generic x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.12.9
           Distro: Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS
Machine:   Device: desktop System: Gigabyte product: N/A serial: N/A
           Mobo: Gigabyte model: B150M-D3H-CF v: x.x serial: N/A UEFI: American Megatrends v: F5 date: 11/02/2015
CPU:       Quad core Intel Core i5-6500 (-MCP-) cache: 6144 KB
           clock speeds: max: 3600 MHz 1: 800 MHz 2: 800 MHz 3: 800 MHz 4: 800 MHz
Graphics:  Card-1: Intel HD Graphics 530
           Card-2: NVIDIA GF108 [GeForce GT 730]
           Display Server: x11 (X.Org 1.20.4 ) drivers: modesetting,nvidia (unloaded: fbdev,vesa,nouveau)
           Resolution: 1600x900@60.00hz
           OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GT 730/PCIe/SSE2 version: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 390.116
Audio:     Card-1 NVIDIA GF108 High Definition Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel
           Card-2 Intel 100 Series/C230 Series Family HD Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k5.0.0-29-generic
Network:   Card-1: Intel Ethernet Connection (2) I219-V driver: e1000e
           IF: enp0s31f6 state: down mac: 40:8d:5c:ea:0c:f3
           Card-2: Ralink RT5572 Wireless Adapter driver: rt2800usb
           IF: wlx9cefd5fd1623 state: N/A mac: N/A
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 560.1GB (19.3% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: KINGSTON_SA400S3 size: 240.1GB
           ID-2: /dev/sdb model: WDC_WD3200AAKX size: 320.1GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 219G used: 8.1G (4%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
           ID-2: /home size: 293G used: 93G (34%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdb1
           ID-3: swap-1 size: 0.02GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda3
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 27.0C mobo: N/A gpu: 44C
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 211 Uptime: 15:29 Memory: 1969.3/15902.9MB Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 2.3.56