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Hardware For a Cheap Linux Desktop (phoronix.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Outside of the limelight of Intel's Core "Skylake" processors is the cheapest model, a $60 Intel Pentium G4400 dual-core processor that runs at 3.3Gz and has built-in HD Graphics 510. Ubuntu Linux results for this CPU show the cut-down Skylake graphics are the worst aspect of this budget processor while the CPU performance is okay if speed isn't a big factor and your workloads don't mind the lack of AVX support. To pair with the cheap Skylake Pentium processors are more Intel H110-powered motherboards appearing, with some also retailing for under $60 while being basic yet functional as a severely cutdown version of the Intel Z170 chipset. If pursuing this route for a budget Linux PC, it's possible to build a socketed Skylake system for less than $200.
Those of you who have recently built, or are planning out a new budget Linux machine, what internals do you recommend?
I recently picked up an ECS KAM1-I motherboard ($25) for the AMD AM1 processor ($25 to $50). The motherboard has two serial ports and two serial port headers for four COM ports. I'm planning to build out a Linux console server for my Cisco certification rack. This is cheaper than trying to convert a Cisco router into a terminal server.
If you aren't going for the top of the line in processing speed, the AMD A-Series will generally get you more processing power for the money than the Intel equivalents.
If you can do with even less graphics power, similar to that of the intel Skylake processors, you could go with the AMD E-Series, but you would see performance loss in graphically intense desktop applications like web browsing and multimedia. If this is tolerable, then go ahead and save the extra money.
As of motherboards, it depends on what you want to do. So long as you don't want overclocking, any of the basic motherboards will do as the advanced voltage regulators really don't give an advantage on low-end processors unless you overclock. However, I'd recommend getting the better chipset if you want USB 3.0 and other features. If not you can go with the basic model.
As of RAM, for an economy machine you want 4GB to 8GB of RAM, and you probably should go ahead and dual-channel the ram if the motherboard supports it, because it will not cost much extra and almost double your RAM access speed.
...then go to your local surplus depot for a school system, college, or large company and look for their older high-end workstations and workgroup servers and buy those for very little money, then put your drives of choice in. You'll find Xeons oodles of RAM and if it's a computer designed for a workspace (ie, not a rackmount server) it won't even be loud.
As an added bonus, with equipment that's a few years old you're likely to be able to run Linux out of the box because the early adopters already figured out how to get the hardware working properly.
The only computers I continue to purchase new are portable computers. I buy used stuff for the rest, the last dual-quad Xeon with 32GB RAM cost me a couple hundred bucks.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Buying new parts will always be more expensive than used parts - take a look at slightly older off-lease systems... You'll get faster parts for fewer dollars at the expense of heat/power consumption.
Ken
$60 CPU + $60 mobo + $40 case/PSU combo = $160. Add in RAM, HDD/SSD, I/O peripherals, and you're definitely gonna be over $200. Just buy a cheap laptop (chromebooks spring to mind), wipe it and put linux on it. Plus, it'll be a laptop. Maybe the performance won't be quite as good, but it'll definitely be serviceable.
Getting on Intel's latest architecture is a fairly meaningless goal.
Ok. Let's be at least a little honest here... for general computing the Pi sucks (GASP! I know, but someone had to come out and say it).
The Pi is neat because if it came down to life and death you could potentially run a full blown version of Linux on it but it's going to really blow. So in the meantime, in an educational or niche purpose environment, it's a great little gizmo to mess with. It almost forces you to understand your OS better because running the full OS is a painful experience so you learn what is and is not essential to your purpose at hand. This is something that few people born after 1990 will appreciate until they run the Pi.