Hello Everyone,

I have finally had enough of my windows PC, and would like to start with Linux.

I was watching a few youtube reviews and would like to get a new desktop and start using Linux Mint.

I also saw a review that not all hardware is compable with linux.

Unfortunally I am not very converse with PCs. A friend recommended a PC with cpu i7 and about 8Gb RAM.

I would like to hear your comments and recommendations.

Thanks :-))

Which CPU and other hardware to reommend is a difficult topic, but it is mostly dependent on your workload, not the installed OS.
Please tell us a bit more about the intended purpose of that system, so that we can give better advice.

similar:http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...2/#post5218532

That would be a powerhouse computer, well above Mint's minimum requirements. I have a Zareason with an i3 and 8GB RAM and it just screams.

Mint has a hardware database at their site: http://community.linuxmint.com/hardware

1 members found this post helpful.

Firstly thanks for the replies.

I want to have a stable desktop that I can watch multimedia, emails, office apps. Also I want the option that it will work wireless and connect to my printer hp officejet 6500A. I would also like other perials such as wireless keyborad and mouse.

In short a normal PC that I can use and not get viruses and performance problems.

Linux uses much fewer facilities than Windows. There are a few distributions that need 2GB, but most don't. 8GB would be useful if you aim to edit feature-length home movies! Mint is a good choice for a modern computer and the average user.

The only hardware things to watch are wifi (if you use a wireless router, of course) and video chips. The former can be a problem if your computer is such a recent model that it has a chip for which no driver has been written. Luckily, there's a Linux tool that enables you to use a Windows driver. With video cards, the problem usually seems to be with old ones, but it's easy to look on the internet for Linux and the name of the card you'll be using and see if anyone's having problems.

Actually, printers are more trouble than computers: some cheap models just don't work and there's nothing that can be done.

Frankbell's list of supported hardware is really helpful, thanks!!!!

Here's another list. Mint is based on Ubuntu, which has their own certified hardware program:

http://www.ubuntu.com/certification/

If hardware is certified to work with a particular Ubuntu release, then you can be reasonably confident it will also work with the corresponding Mint release.

Here is a example from a PC I have found.

Sorry its in German, but I think you guys can understand:

Intel Core i7-4770 Quad-Core Prozessor
8GB DDR3 Arbeitsspeicher
1000GB SATA-III Festplatte
Intel® HD Grafik 4600
Gigabyte GA-H81M-D2V Mainboard
DVD Brenner, DVI Anschluss
NBB K3 Gehäuse mit 420 Watt Netzteil
24 Monate Collect & Return innerhalb von Deutschland
ohne Betriebssystem

For teh workload you described an i7 CPU is more than overkill, you will be fine with the much cheaper i3 (or one of AMD's APUs). If you want to be on the safe side go for an i5 (or one of AMD's more powerful APUs).

Too much muscle is better than too little. If you can afford the power, I'd be inclined to say go for it.

The main reason I selected Zareason was because I wanted to get a native Linux computer that did not come with Ubuntu, and, in the States, Zareason was the only choice I could find. The machine defaulted to the i3 and I doubled the RAM because, when I order a new computer, even a low-end Dell, I always double the RAM--it's a lot easier than upgrading later

My day-to-day computing does not require an i3 and four, let alone eight, gigs of RAM. But they sure are nice!

I definitely fail to see the point in buying a 250$ CPU when all your workload requires is a 80$ CPU (and you will not see any real differences with the described workloads), but of course that is a thing that everyone has to decide for himself.

If you want that model, then go for it. There's nothing there that will trouble Linux. Here's a review of the performance of the Intel 4600 with Linux:
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...00_linux&num=1

Thanks for all your comments, much appreciated.

I'll reiterate what several people have said: Linux needs much less power than Windows, so a Core i7 with 8gb of RAM, which would be in the high mid-range or low high-end in Windows land, is going to be massively powerful for Linux.

The only things I really pay attention to anymore is wireless and graphics. Typically as long as your wireless card doesn't use a RealTek chipset you're ok (and even then it will work, it's just a matter of how much effort it's going to take). As far as graphics, you should be OK with any Radeon card. For the newer ones you can get the proprietary driver and have performance equal to what you'd get in Windows. For older ones the open source driver is almost as good as the proprietary one. If you prefer NVidia I can't help you. I abandoned NVidia years ago for reasons I can't now remember.

For reference, here's my system, which I currently use for gaming, movies, graphic design (Photoshop via Wine), and web browsing:

Processor: Tri-core AMD Athlon64 (Around 7 years old I think)
RAM: 4GB
Graphics: Radeon 4550HD (Older than dirt)
Hard drives: Several, totally about 1.5TB across 5 drives

Obviously this is a desktop, so wireless is a non-issue, but as you can see it's below the specs of any new computer you could possibly buy and it's still more power than I really need, even for gaming (though, in full disclosure, "gaming" in this context means Minecraft, and a selection of games acquired in the first half of the last decade, before I had a wife and kids).