Help Me Spend Money !!!

[operadude]

@BitterTruth Thanks for your response

CPU:
The i7-6700: IS ON THE LIST (from your link).
It's on line 26 of that list-- the items are sorted by generation, so...first 7000s, then 6000s...
But, thanks for checking !!!

BIOS:
I am VERY nervous about flashing my BIOS
This is my main rig, and I'm not willing to risk it...
Although, looking at the support page, the update right after mine (F5) looks important: F6 = Update CPU micro code to fix HT flaw issue
I have flashed BIOSES in the past, and never bricked anything...yet...


RAM:
I decided not to go 64GB (at least for now), since I have 4 sticks of 8GB, using all 4 slots. I do not have another machine for the 32GB; so, going 64GB means wasting the 32GB


PSU:
Yeah, I thought I might have to go KiloWatt
I'll keep a very close eye on that!
Also, I do have other machines that could take this 700W


Thank you very much for your analysis

[operadude]

@CharlesV Thanks for your response

I'm assuming that the WD drive (NVME?) you mentioned is 2TB, not "2gb". Anyway...

I thought of going AMD for the GPU, since I am nervous about persistent rumors (or are those my internal conclusions?) about problems running Nvidia drivers on Linux.

I actually have a very old 2GB Nvidia card that works just fine on my testing rig. For a moment, there was an issue with installing the Nvidia drivers, but I got that all cleared-up.

I also considered AMD, since it seems they might be cheaper; the one I mentioned in the original post goes for about $110 (US). I am not willing to shell-out much more than that on this machine.

I will take a look at the GPUs you mentioned: GeForce RTX 2060 and GeForce GT 730

Thanks

[CharlesV]

@CharlesV Thanks for your response

I'm assuming that the WD drive (NVME?) you mentioned is 2TB, not "2gb". Anyway...

I thought of going AMD for the GPU, since I am nervous about persistent rumors (or are those my internal conclusions?) about problems running Nvidia drivers on Linux.

I actually have a very old 2GB Nvidia card that works just fine on my testing rig. For a moment, there was an issue with installing the Nvidia drivers, but I got that all cleared-up.

I also considered AMD, since it seems they might be cheaper; the one I mentioned in the original post goes for about $110 (US). I am not willing to shell-out much more than that on this machine.

I will take a look at the GPUs you mentioned: GeForce RTX 2060 and GeForce GT 730

Thanks

Ya, typo .. 2tb drives.

Honestly, I think your smart not not to do the firmware updates, but I have found Gigabyte mobo's to be pretty good at firmware updates - But I am of the opinion: only major fixes and security updates on mobo firmware ;-/

I also think, since this is your main rig... a few extra $ might warrant a new machine here. With RAM, NVME's, GPU, and power ... comes age.. and a new mobo with a crisp clean i7-14700K intel will ROCK your world! My previous rig ( Z390 I AORUS PRO WIFI-CF with i7-9700 and 32gb ram is no slouch!.. but it cannot compare with my current rig either)

[BitterTruth]

CPU:
The i7-6700: IS ON THE LIST (from your link).
It's on line 26 of that list-- the items are sorted by generation, so...first 7000s, then 6000s...
But, thanks for checking !!!

Yes, I edited my post after I realised it was on there.

BIOS:
I am VERY nervous about flashing my BIOS
This is my main rig, and I'm not willing to risk it...
Although, looking at the support page, the update right after mine (F5) looks important: F6 = Update CPU micro code to fix HT flaw issue
I have flashed BIOSES in the past, and never bricked anything...yet...

Ermmm. Maybe not on a running system but you are going to be upgrading it anyway so might as well take advantage of it.

RAM:
I decided not to go 64GB (at least for now), since I have 4 sticks of 8GB, using all 4 slots. I do not have another machine for the 32GB; so, going 64GB means wasting the 32GB

Agreed. 32gb is ok. I was bringing your attention to the 8 thread cpu which would be a bigger limitation in my opinion because you can't really assign more than half (or 2/3 max) total otherwise you risk crashing the host. Granted the guests don't use all of it at once but depending on what you run on the vms, you might only be able to run 5 vms at once max whilst not doing much on the host

[operadude]

@BitterTruth

I'll consider the BIOS update.
First thing I did after getting the MOBO up and running was to copy the original BIOS. I know, I know, that's not full-proof, but it's something.
So...a very tentative "maybe" on Flashing.

Re: CPU threads & VMs:
I'm really only at the beginning in terms of using VMs (VirtualBox), and I don't now see myself running more than 1 at a time.
As I progress, I may want to do more.
If I really get into it, then it will probably be time for a new MOBO.
For me, that's probably a few years down the line.

Thanks again for your words of wisdom

[operadude]

@CharlesV

[AVLinux]

Hi,

Might not be directly relevant here with your choices but a cautionary tale; In 2019 after getting very good mileage out one of the early Q6600 Intel quads I decided to redo my rig and build the development computer of my dreams and I switched teams from Intel to AMD and went all in with a 24core/48 thread Threadripper 2970 and a highly rated Gigabyte AORUS motherboard. The first hurdle was the Linux kernel which despite the many articles that said the Threadripper was supported it was not supported well at all and I experienced about a year of random freezes that came without rhyme, reason or warning and required a hard shutdown to recover from. This went on until Kernel 5.18 when it finally was resolved. I'm still using this system but it runs ridiculously hot even with the best dual fan push/pull CPU cooler I could buy (I really didn't want to go liquid) and even with good CPU paste with only a browser open typing this my temperature is sitting at 60 degrees C! I also take it outdoors and blow the components out with a leaf blower every 3 months so the heating has nothing to do with dust build-up. During ISO builds getting up to 85 C is not uncommon and I have a large tower with five 120mm fans running constantly. That said it's been running this hot since 2019 and so far no issues directly relating to overheating but under my desk I sometimes wonder if it's a better space heater than computer...lol. Between the cores and onboard NVMe slots throughput is very fast but I will say that not all applications will necessarily use all the cores (ffmpeg is a good example) so you lose a lot of potential speed savings there and also in the case of Video rendering and things that used to really lean on the CPU many of those workflows now utilize the GPU directly eliminating the need for the CPU to be too wild and crazy. In fact you generally are much better off with a modest CPU and a barnburner of a GPU than the other way around these days.

As a longtime Intel person who switched I would never do another AMD build and of course money is important but VALUE is even more important. A good build often lasts up to 10 years so I think spending a bit more on the one-time cost of having exactly what you want is better than buying an unfamiliar processor simply because it's cheaper..

[txm0523]

Last year I updated my home buil PC. Basically, I went with ASUS MOBO, New RAM, New CPU and New AMD Video Card. It's been running so good I hardly can believe it. Here are my specs:

Code: Select all

System:
  Kernel: 6.8.12-amd64 [6.8.12-1~mx23ahs] arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: N/A
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.8.12-amd64 root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet splash
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 5.27.5 wm: kwin_x11 vt: 7 dm: SDDM Distro: MX-23.6_KDE_x64 Libretto
    September 15 2024 base: Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: ASUS product: N/A v: N/A serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: ASUSTeK model: PRIME B450M-A II v: Rev X.0x serial: <superuser required>
    UEFI: American Megatrends v: 4202 date: 06/16/2023
CPU:
  Info: model: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Zen 2 gen: 3 level: v3 note: check
    built: 2020-22 process: TSMC n7 (7nm) family: 0x17 (23) model-id: 0x71 (113) stepping: 0
    microcode: 0x8701030
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 6 tpc: 2 threads: 12 smt: enabled cache: L1: 384 KiB
    desc: d-6x32 KiB; i-6x32 KiB L2: 3 MiB desc: 6x512 KiB L3: 32 MiB desc: 2x16 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 2160 high: 2200 min/max: 2200/4208 boost: enabled scaling:
    driver: acpi-cpufreq governor: schedutil cores: 1: 2086 2: 2076 3: 2200 4: 2196 5: 2196 6: 2196
    7: 2113 8: 2082 9: 2196 10: 2195 11: 2195 12: 2196 bogomips: 86228

Code: Select all

Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Lexa PRO [Radeon 540/540X/550/550X / RX 540X/550/550X] driver: amdgpu v: kernel
    arch: GCN-4 code: Arctic Islands process: GF 14nm built: 2016-20 pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s
    lanes: 8 ports: active: HDMI-A-1 empty: DP-1,DVI-D-1 bus-ID: 08:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:699f
    class-ID: 0300 temp: 57.0 C
  Device-2: Creative VF0415 Live! Cam Vid. IM Ultra type: USB driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo
    bus-ID: 1-1:2 chip-ID: 041e:4071 class-ID: 0102
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 with: Xwayland v: 22.1.9 compositor: kwin_x11 driver: X:
    loaded: amdgpu unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,radeon,vesa dri: radeonsi gpu: amdgpu display-ID: :0
    screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x285mm (20.00x11.22") s-diag: 582mm (22.93")
  Monitor-1: HDMI-A-1 mapped: HDMI-A-0 model: Samsung LS32B30 serial: <filter> built: 2022
    res: 1920x1080 dpi: 70 gamma: 1.2 size: 698x393mm (27.48x15.47") diag: 184mm (7.2")
    ratio: 16:9, 16:10 modes: max: 1920x1080 min: 720x400
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 24.2.8-1~bpo12+1 renderer: AMD Radeon RX 550 / 550 Series (radeonsi
    polaris12 LLVM 15.0.6 DRM 3.57 6.8.12-amd64) direct-render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD Baffin HDMI/DP Audio [Radeon RX 550 640SP / 560/560X] driver: snd_hda_intel
    v: kernel pcie: bus-ID: 1-1:2 gen: 3 chip-ID: 041e:4071 speed: 8 GT/s class-ID: 0102 lanes: 8
    bus-ID: 08:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:aae0 class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: AMD Starship/Matisse HD Audio vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie:
    gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 0a:00.4 chip-ID: 1022:1487 class-ID: 0403
  Device-3: Creative VF0415 Live! Cam Vid. IM Ultra type: USB driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo
  API: ALSA v: k6.8.12-amd64 status: kernel-api tools: alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.0 status: off with: 1: pipewire-pulse status: off 2: wireplumber
    status: off tools: pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
  Server-2: PulseAudio v: 16.1 status: active tools: pacat,pactl,pavucontrol
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8125 2.5GbE driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: gen: 2 speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 1
    port: e000 bus-ID: 06:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8125 class-ID: 0200
  IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: ASUSTeK PRIME B450M-A
    driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: d000 bus-ID: 07:00.0
    chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200
  IF: eth1 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-3: MediaTek WiFi type: USB driver: mt76x0u bus-ID: 3-2:2 chip-ID: 0e8d:7610
    class-ID: 0000 serial: <filter>
  IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 465.76 GiB used: 99.47 GiB (21.4%)
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 870 EVO 500GB size: 465.76 GiB
    block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 2B6Q
    scheme: MBR
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 465.51 GiB size: 457.13 GiB (98.20%) used: 99.47 GiB (21.8%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 256 MiB size: 252 MiB (98.46%) used: 274 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 4 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swap/swap
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 39.5 C mobo: N/A gpu: amdgpu temp: 57.0 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Repos:
  Packages: 3126 pm: dpkg pkgs: 3118 libs: 1790 tools: apt,apt-get,aptitude,nala,synaptic pm: rpm
    pkgs: 0 pm: flatpak pkgs: 8
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/brave-browser-release.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/brave-browser-archive-keyring.gpg] https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/ stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bookworm-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bookworm non-free-firmware non-free contrib main
    2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security/ bookworm-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
    3: deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian/ bookworm non-free-firmware non-free contrib main
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/teamviewer.list
    1: deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/teamviewer-keyring.gpg] https://linux.teamviewer.com/deb/ stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/extrepo_librewolf.sources
    1: deb [arch=amd64 arm64] https://repo.librewolf.net librewolf main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/winehq-bookworm.sources
    1: deb [arch=amd64 i386] https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/debian bookworm main
Info:
  Processes: 307 Uptime: 37m wakeups: 1 Memory: 15.5 GiB used: 2.53 GiB (16.4%) Init: SysVinit
  v: 3.06 runlevel: 5 default: graphical tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 12.2.0 alt: 12
  Client: shell wrapper v: 5.2.15-release inxi: 3.3.26
Boot Mode: UEFI

PS: I have been using a wireless USB to connect with WiFi. Fast and stable too.

[Stevo]

Although, looking at the support page, the update right after mine (F5) looks important: F6 = Update CPU micro code to fix HT flaw issue

If you have intel-microcode installed, that will load the new microcode at boot time.

Code: Select all

$ apt show intel-microcode
Package: intel-microcode
Version: 3.20250512.1~deb12u1
Priority: standard
Section: non-free-firmware/admin
Maintainer: Henrique de Moraes Holschuh <hmh@debian.org>
Installed-Size: 19.7 MB
Depends: iucode-tool (>= 1.0)
Recommends: initramfs-tools (>= 0.113~)
Conflicts: microcode.ctl (<< 0.18~0)
Homepage: https://github.com/intel/Intel-Linux-Processor-Microcode-Data-Files
Download-Size: 11.1 MB
APT-Manual-Installed: yes
APT-Sources: http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm/non-free-firmware amd64 Packages
Description: Processor microcode firmware for Intel CPUs
 This package contains updated system processor microcode for
 Intel i686 and Intel X86-64 processors.  Intel releases microcode
 updates to correct processor behavior as documented in the
 respective processor specification updates.

[BitterTruth]

With regards to the bios, the way I see it with the updates is:

1) you're extremely lucky if the manufacturer is still putting them out. Take them whilst you can
2) a lot of older bioses (pre-2015/2010) weren't really made with linux in mind. They were made for windows based machines, so sometimes, they don't really work well with all the new power saving features that modern distros/kernels provide and that's why you see a lot of acpi issues in the linux forums. (you probably won't have this issue but others might).
3) newer boards have a backup bios as well as the main bios. If both of those fail for whatever reason and the board can't boot, some manufacturers have now added hardware features to the mobo that can flash the bios without the cpu, graphics, ram installed. Just needs power connected. So it's not like the old days where you felt like you were the main character in a real life horror movie.
Gigabyte calls their's Q flash plus. Unfortunately your's doesn't have that capability. I think MSI have it too and no doubt asus will have it as well.
4) sometimes you have no option if you have to unlock it because the manufacturer (lenovo, hp) has a whitelist on it that only allows certain wifi cards and original batteries etc and won't recognise them if you swap them out.
5) You might also have to update if you want to install a later cpu as some boards only support faster cpus with later bios firmware.