Hardware for custom built PC

[cscj01]

I am planning to build my first desktop PC. I plan to run Ubuntu 12.04 with a Virtualbox VM having XP as its OS. My apps will consist of photo processing (Darktable, Gimp), video processing (Kino, Openshot), audio processing (Audacity), desktop publishing (Scribus), and household financial, graphics, and office applications. I have used PcPartPicker to come up with an initial configuration. Does anyone see any problems with this configuration related to Ubuntu and apps I want to run or have any suggestions for changing things? Here's my build setup:

Type	Item	Price
CPU	Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor	$189.99 @ Microcenter
CPU Cooler	Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2 45.0 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler	$29.99 @ Newegg
Motherboard	Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H ATX LGA1155 Motherboard	$179.99 @ Newegg
Memory	G.Skill Ripjaws Z Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory	$194.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$89.99 @ Microcenter
Video Card	EVGA GeForce GTX 650 1GB Video Card	$99.99 @ Newegg
Sound Card	Creative Labs Audigy SE 24-bit 96 KHz Sound Card	$21.99 @ Newegg
Case	NZXT Phantom 410 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case	$99.99 @ Amazon
Power Supply	Corsair Professional 650W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply	$109.99 @ Newegg
Optical Drive	Samsung SH-224BB DVD/CD Writer	$15.99 @ Newegg
Keyboard	Microsoft JWD-00046 Wired Standard Keyboard	$11.99 @ Amazon
Mouse	Microsoft Basic Wired Optical Mouse	$15.99 @ Adorama
		Total
	Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.	$1060.88
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-03-08 00:27 EST-0500

I listed this on Reddit, but no one commented on whether anything in this configuration might cause problems under Ubuntu. I presume the only two pieces that are of concern with respect to the list are the mother board and the video card. Any comments will be appreciated.

[thunderpenguin]

All Nvidia cards have good support on Linux. I don't know about the motherboard.

[The Spectre]

You might be better off shuffling funds from certain parts and put it towards others.

For example 32 GB of RAM is probably overkill, 16 GB is probably more than enough.

And instead of using a Full Size ATX Motherboard go with a Micro ATX Motherboard and possible a Micro ATX Case.

It looks like you will only have two devices the need expansion slots the Video and Sound Card and most Micro ATX Motherboards have three or four expansion slots.

You might not need the Sound Card either.

The sound capability's built into the Motherboards have come a long way and unless you have some Very Good Speakers or Headphones you probably could not tell them apart.

With the money saved on those parts you could put it towards an SSD Drive or a Seagate Momentus XT Solid State Hybrid Drive for considerable faster performance.

You also might want to get a Comfortable Mouse and Keyboard (Your hands will thank you for it).

Since you will be using you Computer for Video and Photo Editing you might want to get a Mouse the uses Laser Tracking, it is much more precise for working with graphics.



This is the Micro ATX System I built Last Year...
i7 Micro ATX (8).jpg

[tgalati4]

I would get a used Dell PowerEdge tower and use the money saved to replace the RAM with faster sticks and max out the motherboard. Put in SSD and a few terabyte spinners. You can probably find a dual Xeon dual core (4 processors) for around $300. Check http://craigslist.org . Nothing wrong with your kit list, it's just that companies upgrade computers every 3 years, so there are a lot of decent used hardware out there that will run Ubuntu like it was on fire.

For instance: (This one is missing one Xeon processor, but you could by 2 faster ones, I think 3.2 or 3.6 GHz.)

Dell 1600sc server - $30 (rtp)
Dell Poweredge 1600sc tower server
Single XEON 2ghz with socket for one more.
Onboard SCSI
512m ECC DDR
DAT drive
CD and floppy drives
Single power supply
PCI IDE RAID controller.
Includes one 40g hard drive on standard onboard IDE channel. IDE RAID controller can run up to 4 hard drives which are not included.
System in very good shape and works fine. Boots with no issues off a Linux live CD. I think Linux recognized the IDE RAID controller too.
It's ready to run, just add more hard drives if you want and add an OS.

The bottom line is to not underestimate server hardware for the kind of work that you want to do. If you have a padded closet, you could go with rack-based PowerEdge servers, they can be had for cheap, but they have noisy fans--as in they sound like propeller aircraft. And they should, 7 fans spinning at 6700 rpm will make some noise.

[The Spectre]

Here is some info on the Micro ATX Motherboard that I chose for my Build...

This is the one that I chose because I am Overclocking my CPU...
GA-Z77MX-D3H
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/pro....aspx?pid=4370

If you do not plan on Overclocking your CPU you might find that this Motherboard will suite your needs and save you $40.00 to $50.00 in the process...
GA-B75M-D3P
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/pro....aspx?pid=4203


I have had no problems running Ubuntu with my Motherboard and the On Board Audio, Ethernet and USB were all working immediately after Ubuntu 12.10 was installed.

[andrew.46]

Good to see a modular PSU in there, my only regret from my last build was not spending a few dollars more and creating a cleaner build! Good on you for grabbing RAM since it is so cheap these days but is you HDD a little small? I see that you have mentioned video processing which normally requires an acre or 3 of space to run...