Re: Building computer
On 9/25/2013 12:52 PM, Catherine Gramze wrote:
>
> On Sep 25, 2013, at 12:52 AM, Stan Hoeppner <stan@hardwarefreak.com> wrote:
>
>> There's a huge amount of what we call "channel" or "DIY" hardware out
>> there that works fine with Linux. The only real issues are
>>
>> 1. What's available in your local market and at what price point
>> 2. Choice of integrated GPU
>>
>> For 'seamless' integration with stock Debian it's usually best to buy a
>> GPU that's a generation or two older than the bleeding edge. Same goes
>> for the system chipset to a degree. The newer the GPU the more time
>> you'll spend fighting with installing experimental kernels, modules,
>> x.org settings, etc. If you need good 3D support you may have to do
>> some of this anyway, unfortunately.
>>
>> Reply, and CC me, with your basic requirements/needs and your locale,
>> and I'll see if I can come up with a suitable parts list for you, and
>> vendors where you can purchase them. The more "remote" your locale the
>> longer this will take as I have to first 'discover' vendors in your
>> region. If you have a preferred vendor and provide their web address,
>> that'll make this quicker obviously. If you're in the US, it'll be very
>> quick indeed, as we have Newegg.
>
> Stan, I thank you. I want a machine that has the capability to run World of Warcraft in Wine. So, I need decent graphics. Here is what I was thinking:
Disclaimer: I've never used Wine. And I've never played WOW. That
said a faster GPU isn't going to overcome the deficiencies of Wine
emulation.
And I'm at a loss here. The detailed list below suggests that you were
sand bagging to an extent in your previous post.
> Haswell quad-core i5
>
> MSI H87-43G motherboard
I'll address these two below.
> 8 gig DDR3 1600 ram, Corsair (should I get 16 and use all 4 slots?)
What desktop applications are you using that require 8GB, let alone
16GB, of RAM? I'd think 4 would be plenty. If you wish to over buy
DRAM, that's a personal choice. It will likely not improve performance
in any meaningful way, for WOW in Wine, or anything else.
> onboard sound, Realtek ALC892
I'm no Linux sound expert. I don't know if stock Wheezy supports the
892. Maybe others can chime in.
> onboard NIC, Realtek 8111E
The 8111 is supported, with non-free firmware, IIRC.
> Radeon 7870 video card with 2 gig of video ram, probably Sapphire, - avoiding the bleeding edge here. My Linux experience may be old and rusty, but I remember recompiling my kernel to get Soundblaster support. Use hardware with known drivers!
TTBOMK, WOW doesn't require anywhere close to 2GB of VRAM for textures
and frame buffer, even at 1920x1080. So your choice of video card seems
to be serious overkill. I would think most current integrated (APU or
chipset) GPUs should be fine for WOW. I'd scale back your vid card
choice to a model that doesn't require a PCIe power plug. There are
many available with plenty of performance for WOW, for less than half
the price of a 7870. This also allows you to scale back your PSU. See
below for detail.
WRT Soundblaster emulation, Windows software hasn't used this for ages.
It all uses the DirectSound API. And Linux doesn't need it for
anything AFAIK. Do you plan on running old DOS/Windows 3.11 games in
Wine as well?
> 750 watt power supply (Coolermaster GX)
Overkill again. A 400W PSU with a single 20A +12V rail is sufficient
for just about any desktop PC. The Radeon 7870 consumes a peak of 6.25A
at +12V on the PCIe connector, plus a peak of 6.25A at +12V through the
x16 slot, 12.5A, 150W peak total. A CPU + HDD will not consume anywhere
close to the remaining 7.5A of +12V power. That would be 90 watts. The
bulk of a CPU's power is drawn from the +3.3V rail, where most PSUs
rated for 30A+, or ~100W. If one has more than 4 spinning HDs then a
400W PSU might become borderline with the 7870.
A 750W PSU can handle a 115W CPU, 32GB RAM, two 7870s in Xfire, and 8
spinning HDs, without breaking a sweat. AMD (and nVidia) recommends
over sized PSUs for a single reason: fewer support calls to card
vendors due to lack of power to the card. If one possesses the
knowledge, one can save money with a much smaller PSU, and save a bit on
the electric bill, as many inexpensive PSUs are less efficient at
partial load. I.e. many 400W PSUs at 80% load consume less wall power
than many 750s at 45% load. The difference is not huge, but over time
it adds up.
> Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO cpu cooler
Good choice. I'm using 4 of the Hyper 101s, two of them in an old dual
socket server. Good design, quality, great cooling, and quiet.
> Lian Li PC-9N case
Never been a fan of Lian Li, but I can understand why some are.
> I have speakers, keyboard, mouse, monitor.
>
> Please let me know if you think using the Haswell chip is unwise; I would rather buy the first chip that uses the new socket than the last chip, Ivy Bridge, using the old socket, for the potential of upgrading in the future.
The MSI H87-43G will not work with a Haswell CPU. It's an LGA 1155
board. Haswell desktop CPUs will require LGA 1150 TTBOMK. Do you have
a link to a specific i5 model# you're looking at? Is there a socket
1155 Haswell I'm not aware of? Disclaimer: For many years I've been
AMD only and don't tend to keep up with Intel's offerings.
The socket vs upgrade concern is not valid. It will be at least 10
years before desktop applications, especially Linux apps, are
sufficiently threaded to take advantage of today's 4 core CPUs, let
alone 6/8 cores. New hardware doesn't make old hardware obsolete. New
software does. There are many people, including myself, who would say
this applies even to dual core CPUs. And in fact, at the rate of
desktop software development today, WRT threads, one is better off
purchasing a higher clocked dual core CPU with lots of cache than a quad
core model at a lower clock, especially given power consumption.
Worrying about which future CPU will fit in your mobo socket is a waste
of brain cycles. It's irrelevant. By the time you *need* to upgrade,
you'll want newer faster DRAM, etc. So you'll end up replacing the
board, CPU, and memory, as people have been doing for some years
already. Oh, add to that the fact that AMD and Intel keep changing
sockets to accelerate this trend. The entire industry is better off
when people keep buying new hardware, obviously, even if the consumers
aren't.
--
Stan
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