I see the raise of popularity of Linux laptops so the hardware compatibility is ready out of the box. However I wonder how would I build PC right know that has budget - high end specification. For now I’m thinking
- Case: does not matter
- Fans: does not matter
- PSU: does not matter
- RAM: does not matter I guess?
- Disks: does not matter I guess?
- CPU: AMD / Intel - does not matter but I would prefer AMD
- GPU: AMD / Intel / Nvidia - for gaming and Wayland - AMD, for AI, ML, CUDA and other first supported technologies - Nvidia.
And now the most confusing part for me - motherboard… Is there even some coreboot or libreboot motherboard for PC that supports “high end” hardware?
Let’s just say also a purpose of this Linux PC. Choose any of these
- Blender 3D Animation rendering
- Gaming
- Local LLM running
If you have some good resources on this also let me know.
You can absolutely use an AMD card for LLMs. You can even use the CPU if you don’t mind it being slower.
If this person is a AI researcher doing lots of LLM work it might be different but somehow I think they are just a casual user that asks questions
Both blender and every llm library I’m aware of work better and have broader support with nvidia hardware.
That’s two out of three of the ops use cases.
Gaming, the third use case, is perfectly fine using an nvidia card.
There’s nothing wrong with amd video cards, but for this user, in this case, they’re not the choice I would recommend.
Especially if they’re just a normal person who asks questions because it’s much, much more likely that someone who uses blender or llms will be able to answer their questions and address any issues related to hardware because people using blender and llm are broadly using nvidia cards.
The problem is that Nvidia cards also such under Linux. Sure it may work in some configurations but with a Intel or AMD GPU it works without fiddling around. As long as you have a new enough kernel it is a good experience.
I don’t think that’s relevant.
To employ a car metaphor, I own a small Japanese sedan. I’ve installed an aftermarket tow hitch and have used it to haul small trailers. I have a pair of toolboxes in the trunk and I live up a road that after recent events would be considered a technical driving course. I’m able to get home just fine in my small, low clearance car with a four cylinder engine and touring tires.
If a person asked me: “what vehicle should I get for towing, working in trades and off roading on the weekend?”, I’d absolutely never suggest a Honda accord.
While the experience of owning a diesel truck is more complex and requires some fiddling around, for example, remembering to use the green pump, understanding when to use the fuel cutoff switch, using a block heater when it’s cold outside, saving up more money for repairs and generally actually operating the vehicle differently under almost any comparable conditions, it’s the right tool for the job at hand and dealing with those differences is part and parcel not just of handling the tool, but completing the job.