Linux Gaming PC less than $400

[McGirk242]

Hello,

I'm interested in building a linux gaming pc for less than US $400. I want to build this when I have the money on hand. I have mouse and keyboard and see no reason for a DVD drive. I really want to have something that will play most if not all linux games. I'm not looking for a killer WINDOWS pc but a linux one. The version would be Ubuntu 13.04

I don't know too much about building computers aside from Newegg Tutorials and Jackfrag's "Build Your own Steambox" Videos.

Any help is appreciated.

Thank You

 

[emad_ramlawi]

Hello McGirk242,

I truly appreciate your smart move with not needing a DVD drive, i have been not using a DVD drive for more than 1 year, and i never needed, i know good tutorial on how to install Windows 7 from USB drives, and with the use of Imdisk(something like Daemon Tools) you wont need DVD drives for ever.

Also from what i know in linux using Unetbootin you can probably install most of Linux Distro`s

Linux does not benefit much from directx, but more from OpenGL, and i reckon AMD cards are more mature in OpenGL than Nvidia.

And AMD HD graphic drivers have come along way, and i have an APU and i used it with Lubuntu, and i simply installed a package called:

fglrx, also installed the latest drivers from AMD website manually is fairly simple and easy and comes with the great GUI program that i reckon provides more tinkering option that others, simply head to AMD driver website :

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx

Select your card, and after downloading the tar package, you will need to extract it, then close the xserver session, i reckon if i remember correctly it was by /etc/init.d/gdm stop, then head to tty1 and login and execute the install script, and then its was done and it was faily easy
in my opinion.


Going back to your question:

You have 400USD which is not much but we have to work out something, i reckon you also need a monitor and PSU unit correct?


IF so we will need a cheap quad core + AMD 7750 (make sure its GDDR5 and DDR3) which will be great combination:

Please read here, to find out my source of this recommendation :

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6934/choosing-a-gaming-cpu-single-multigpu-at-1440p/9

If I were gaming today on a single GPU, the A8-5600K (or non-K equivalent) would strike me as a price competitive choice
for frame rates

and due to there is and FM2 mobo socket that are cheap that maybe a way to go:


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113281 = 109 USD quad core CPU

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131481 = 90 USD great GPU (you can grab the 7770 but with your budget were abit limited)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136770 = 60 USD (normal no frill 500 GB HDD)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131885 = 55 USD (mobo its abit of no frill with no Usb 3.0)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820239263 = 30 USD Ram 4 GB DDR3 1 slot, in the future you can purchase another one

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811233073 = 25 USD any other cheap case will do

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139026 = 45 USD good PSU + certified.

------------------------------------------------------------------
total : 414 USD ..... shit

still without a monitor , maybe then you can forget about the GPU and use the AMD integrated GPU for some time, do a research on it is called HD 7560D and after while when you have money or when the AMD hd 8000 gets released you can purchase a GPU or the same 7750.

Hope others can help, also please report back if there is any components that you can re-use like HDD drive or monitor or something.


Of course there is alot of alternative setups out there, but i reckon this is the best balanced setup for your money, and its also power efficient and quiet (upon adding and external Graphic card, the the AMD APU will stop its internal Graphic card, and thus be more quieter and cool.)

 

[McGirk242]

Hello McGirk242,

I truly appreciate your smart move with not needing a DVD drive, i have been not using a DVD drive for more than 1 year, and i never needed, i know good tutorial on how to install Windows 7 from USB drives, and with the use of Imdisk(something like Daemon Tools) you wont need DVD drives for ever.

Also from what i know in linux using Unetbootin you can probably install most of Linux Distro`s

Linux does not benefit much from directx, but more from OpenGL, and i reckon AMD cards are more mature in OpenGL than Nvidia.

And AMD HD graphic drivers have come along way, and i have an APU and i used it with Lubuntu, and i simply installed a package called:
fglrx, also installed the latest drivers from AMD website manually is fairly simple and easy and comes with the great GUI program that i reckon provides more tinkering option that others, simply head to AMD driver website :

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx

Select your card, and after downloading the tar package, you will need to extract it, then close the xserver session, i reckon if i remeber
correctly it was by /etc/init.d/gdm stop, then head to tty1 and login and execute the install script, and then its was done and it was faily easy
in my opinon.


Going back to your question:

You have 400USD which is not much but we have to work out something, i reckon you also need a monitor and PSU unit correct?


IF so we will need a cheap quad core + AMD 7750 (make sure its GDDR5 and DDR3) which will be great combination:

Please read here, to find out my source of this recommendation :

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6934/choosing-a-gaming-cpu-single-multigpu-at-1440p/9

If I were gaming today on a single GPU, the A8-5600K (or non-K equivalent) would strike me as a price competitive choice
for frame rates

and due to there is and FM2 mobo socket that are cheap that maybe a way to go:


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113281 = 109 USD quad core CPU

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131481 = 90 USD great GPU (you can grab the 7770 but with your budget were abit limited)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136770 = 60 USD (normal no frill 500 GB HDD)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131885 = 55 USD (mobo its abit of no frill with no Usb 3.0)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820239263 = 30 USD Ram 4 GB DDR3 1 slot, in the future you can purchase another one

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811233073 = 25 USD any other cheap case will do

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139026 = 45 USD good PSU + certified.

------------------------------------------------------------------
total : 414 USD ..... shit

still without a monitor , maybe then you can forget about the GPU and use the AMD integrated GPU for some time, do a research on it itca
called HD 7560D and after while when you have money or when the AMD hd 8000 gets released you can purchase a GPU or the
same 7750.

Hope others can help, also please report back if there is any components that you can re-use like HDD drive or montior or something.




Of course there is alot of alternative setups out there, but i reckon this is the best balanced setup for your money, and its also power
efficent and quiet (upon adding and external Graphic card, the the AMD APU will stop its internal Graphic card, and thus be more quieter
and power effient.)

Thanks for your suggestions,

The way I see it, I self educated myself in computer components for a while now and your advice is very helpful elaborating on things I didn't know much about. From what I've read from hardcore linux users they seemed to say that AMD's proprietary drivers are not up to par with Nvidia's, is that true or is AMD the strongest when it comes to OpenGL performance? I'll look it up on Phoronix for more detail anyway. You mentioned a monitor and in my neighborhood the craigslist shows that there is quite an abundance of old monitors. I plan to run games and everything at 1280x720 or 1280x1024 max so that can be put to rest. Space is another issue I have, the place where I'll be going to live in for the next couple of years will be quite cramped so mini-itx or micro-atx cases just might be the order of the day. I really just want a small, but powerful PC for linux that can rust most Steam for Linux games such as Crusader Kings 2 or Team Fortress 2. PS- For a cheap CPU newegg has Athlon II X4 for $74.99 and another for $84.99, not to mention the FX-4100 for $99. (Not trying to steal the thunder or anything just simple observations, I really want the opinions of experts. I'll look up some results for APU performance in Linux as well)

Thanks again, you've really helped my outlook on the situation

 

[emad_ramlawi]

Hello McGirk242,

I truly appreciate your smart move with not needing a DVD drive, i have been not using a DVD drive for more than 1 year, and i never needed, i know good tutorial on how to install Windows 7 from USB drives, and with the use of Imdisk(something like Daemon Tools) you wont need DVD drives for ever.

Also from what i know in linux using Unetbootin you can probably install most of Linux Distro`s

Linux does not benefit much from directx, but more from OpenGL, and i reckon AMD cards are more mature in OpenGL than Nvidia.

And AMD HD graphic drivers have come along way, and i have an APU and i used it with Lubuntu, and i simply installed a package called:
fglrx, also installed the latest drivers from AMD website manually is fairly simple and easy and comes with the great GUI program that i reckon provides more tinkering option that others, simply head to AMD driver website :

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx

Select your card, and after downloading the tar package, you will need to extract it, then close the xserver session, i reckon if i remeber
correctly it was by /etc/init.d/gdm stop, then head to tty1 and login and execute the install script, and then its was done and it was faily easy
in my opinon.


Going back to your question:

You have 400USD which is not much but we have to work out something, i reckon you also need a monitor and PSU unit correct?


IF so we will need a cheap quad core + AMD 7750 (make sure its GDDR5 and DDR3) which will be great combination:

Please read here, to find out my source of this recommendation :

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6934/choosing-a-gaming-cpu-single-multigpu-at-1440p/9

If I were gaming today on a single GPU, the A8-5600K (or non-K equivalent) would strike me as a price competitive choice
for frame rates

and due to there is and FM2 mobo socket that are cheap that maybe a way to go:


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113281 = 109 USD quad core CPU

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131481 = 90 USD great GPU (you can grab the 7770 but with your budget were abit limited)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136770 = 60 USD (normal no frill 500 GB HDD)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131885 = 55 USD (mobo its abit of no frill with no Usb 3.0)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820239263 = 30 USD Ram 4 GB DDR3 1 slot, in the future you can purchase another one

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811233073 = 25 USD any other cheap case will do

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139026 = 45 USD good PSU + certified.

------------------------------------------------------------------
total : 414 USD ..... shit

still without a monitor , maybe then you can forget about the GPU and use the AMD integrated GPU for some time, do a research on it itca
called HD 7560D and after while when you have money or when the AMD hd 8000 gets released you can purchase a GPU or the
same 7750.

Hope others can help, also please report back if there is any components that you can re-use like HDD drive or montior or something.




Of course there is alot of alternative setups out there, but i reckon this is the best balanced setup for your money, and its also power
efficent and quiet (upon adding and external Graphic card, the the AMD APU will stop its internal Graphic card, and thus be more quieter
and power effient.)

Thanks for your suggestions,

The way I see it, I self educated myself in computer components for a while now and your advice is very helpful elaborating on things I didn't know much about. From what I've read from hardcore linux users they seemed to say that AMD's proprietary drivers are not up to par with Nvidia's, is that true or is AMD the strongest when it comes to OpenGL performance? I'll look it up on Phoronix for more detail anyway. You mentioned a monitor and in my neighborhood the craigslist shows that there is quite an abundance of old monitors. I plan to run games and everything at 1280x720 or 1280x1024 max so that can be put to rest. Space is another issue I have, the place where I'll be going to live in for the next couple of years will be quite cramped so mini-itx or micro-atx cases just might be the order of the day. I really just want a small, but powerful PC for linux that can rust most Steam for Linux games such as Crusader Kings 2 or Team Fortress 2. PS- For a cheap CPU newegg has Athlon II X4 for $74.99 and another for $84.99, not to mention the FX-4100 for $99. (Not trying to steal the thunder or anything just simple observations, I really want the opinions of experts. I'll look up some results for APU performance in Linux as well)

Thanks again, you've really helped my outlook on the situation

No problem, your most welcome, now that you have mentioned it the mini itx form factor, you have to take alook at this :

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157357

ITs the best mini -itx mobo for FM2 socket and it have great reviews, there is no other AMD motherboard mini itx than this to consider.

Also your are correct Athlon II X4 for $74.99 is great CPU performance, however i overlooked it cause its AM3 socket, and that will force you to buy a GPU however, i got an idea, since you will paying on small resolution, maybe that above mini-itx mobo + the a8-5600 APU, which have an impressive Integrated GPU, and you can get away with it, i already have the last gernation and i am playing on 1280*1024 if i recall correctly and i can play skyim on mid setting with 40~50 FPS.
So that will deduct the GPU cost and in the future you can purchase it, in the case of athlon x4 notice most am3 motherboards dont comes with VGA/HDMI/DP output

 

[McGirk242]

Hello McGirk242,

I truly appreciate your smart move with not needing a DVD drive, i have been not using a DVD drive for more than 1 year, and i never needed, i know good tutorial on how to install Windows 7 from USB drives, and with the use of Imdisk(something like Daemon Tools) you wont need DVD drives for ever.

Also from what i know in linux using Unetbootin you can probably install most of Linux Distro`s

Linux does not benefit much from directx, but more from OpenGL, and i reckon AMD cards are more mature in OpenGL than Nvidia.

And AMD HD graphic drivers have come along way, and i have an APU and i used it with Lubuntu, and i simply installed a package called:
fglrx, also installed the latest drivers from AMD website manually is fairly simple and easy and comes with the great GUI program that i reckon provides more tinkering option that others, simply head to AMD driver website :

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx

Select your card, and after downloading the tar package, you will need to extract it, then close the xserver session, i reckon if i remeber
correctly it was by /etc/init.d/gdm stop, then head to tty1 and login and execute the install script, and then its was done and it was faily easy
in my opinon.


Going back to your question:

You have 400USD which is not much but we have to work out something, i reckon you also need a monitor and PSU unit correct?


IF so we will need a cheap quad core + AMD 7750 (make sure its GDDR5 and DDR3) which will be great combination:

Please read here, to find out my source of this recommendation :

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6934/choosing-a-gaming-cpu-single-multigpu-at-1440p/9

If I were gaming today on a single GPU, the A8-5600K (or non-K equivalent) would strike me as a price competitive choice
for frame rates

and due to there is and FM2 mobo socket that are cheap that maybe a way to go:


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113281 = 109 USD quad core CPU

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131481 = 90 USD great GPU (you can grab the 7770 but with your budget were abit limited)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136770 = 60 USD (normal no frill 500 GB HDD)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131885 = 55 USD (mobo its abit of no frill with no Usb 3.0)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820239263 = 30 USD Ram 4 GB DDR3 1 slot, in the future you can purchase another one

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811233073 = 25 USD any other cheap case will do

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139026 = 45 USD good PSU + certified.

------------------------------------------------------------------
total : 414 USD ..... shit

still without a monitor , maybe then you can forget about the GPU and use the AMD integrated GPU for some time, do a research on it itca
called HD 7560D and after while when you have money or when the AMD hd 8000 gets released you can purchase a GPU or the
same 7750.

Hope others can help, also please report back if there is any components that you can re-use like HDD drive or montior or something.




Of course there is alot of alternative setups out there, but i reckon this is the best balanced setup for your money, and its also power
efficent and quiet (upon adding and external Graphic card, the the AMD APU will stop its internal Graphic card, and thus be more quieter
and power effient.)

Thanks for your suggestions,

The way I see it, I self educated myself in computer components for a while now and your advice is very helpful elaborating on things I didn't know much about. From what I've read from hardcore linux users they seemed to say that AMD's proprietary drivers are not up to par with Nvidia's, is that true or is AMD the strongest when it comes to OpenGL performance? I'll look it up on Phoronix for more detail anyway. You mentioned a monitor and in my neighborhood the craigslist shows that there is quite an abundance of old monitors. I plan to run games and everything at 1280x720 or 1280x1024 max so that can be put to rest. Space is another issue I have, the place where I'll be going to live in for the next couple of years will be quite cramped so mini-itx or micro-atx cases just might be the order of the day. I really just want a small, but powerful PC for linux that can rust most Steam for Linux games such as Crusader Kings 2 or Team Fortress 2. PS- For a cheap CPU newegg has Athlon II X4 for $74.99 and another for $84.99, not to mention the FX-4100 for $99. (Not trying to steal the thunder or anything just simple observations, I really want the opinions of experts. I'll look up some results for APU performance in Linux as well)

Thanks again, you've really helped my outlook on the situation

No problem, your most welcome, now that you have mentioned it the mini itx form factor, you have to take alook at this :

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157357

ITs the best mini -itx mobo for FM2 socket and it have great reviews, there is no other AMD motherboard mini itx than this to consider.

Also your are correct Athlon II X4 for $74.99 is great CPU performance, however i overlooked it cause its AM3 socket, and that will force you to buy a GPU however, i got an idea, since you will paying on small resolution, maybe that above mini-itx mobo + the a8-5600 APU, which have an impressive Integrated GPU, and you can get away with it, i already have the last gernation and i am playing on 1280*1024 if i recall correctly and i can play skyim on mid setting with 40~50 FPS.
So that will deduct the GPU cost and in the future you can purchase it, in the case of athlon x4 notice most am3 motherboards dont comes with VGA/HDMI/DP output

Allright thanks, I think Ill be going with an APU build. An A8-5600K or A10-5800K. Maybe I'll wait a bit and see how Richland goes with Linux. But for sure I'm going with Linux. 4GB of RAM should be enough. 500GB HDD and a 300-400 Watt PSU should do it. Not really going to be OC'ing much anyways. Thanks, for this you really helped a lot now I'll know what I'll be building.

Once again, thanks