Building a linux box for my dad

If you can swing it, swap the HDD for an SSD.

Well I wouldn't get rid of the HDD because having a swap partition on an SSD will shorten its lifespan.

Proven untrue already, they've been rewriting petabytes to these SSDs and they've survived the torture tests just fine http://techreport.com/review/27436/the-ssd-endurance-experiment-two-freaking-petabytes

It doesn't mater how much data you can write to it, it will still die faster if you use it for your swap partition. Granted it will take a lot of time. You could get a HDD and make a swap partition on it and use the rest as storage for media and other things you don't need to access as fast.

I don't think you're aware of how swap works and how it's relevant to those drives surviving over 2000 TB of data being written and erased as if the drives where all swap...

I realize it would most likely outlive the rest of the components in this build but I would personally prefer not to have a swap partition on a SSD, because I like to get the most out of my hardware.

So I went shopping around and got a nice line up for about the same price the first list was.
New list including links.

AMD A6-7400K - http://datorfixarna.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=51008
Corsair CX 430M 430W - http://www.webhallen.com/se-sv/datorkomponenter/167604-corsair_powersupply_cx_430m_430w
Corsair Vengeance DDR3 2x4GB - http://www.netonnet.se/art/dator/komponenter/internminne/ddr3/corsair-vengeance8gb1600mhzddr3/179151.7060/
Gigabyte GA-F2A88XN-WIFI - http://www.netonnet.se/art/dator/komponenter/moderkort/amd-socket-fm2-/gigabyte-ga-f2a88xn-wifi/197103.7085/
BitFenix Prodigy - http://www.proshop.se/Datorchassi/BitFenix-Prodigy-Mini-ITX-Blue-2405828.html?utm_source=prisjakt&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=pricesite
Seagate Barracuda 64MB 1TB - http://www.electroworld.se/product/datorer-tillbehor/harddisk/ST1000DM003/seagate-barracuda-intern-harddisk-1-tb-3-5-bulk?scid=PRICECOMP_PRISJAKT
Kingston SSD 120GB - http://www.webhallen.com/se-sv/datorkomponenter/166066-kingston_120gb_ssdnow_v300_sata3_25-450-450_mb-s-85k_iops&atcl=external:ref

How does that look? I think it is fine but do tell if there is room for improvement.

Edit: I got another question. I got the impression that the printer drivers are pain in linux. How true is that?

Those SSDnow drives are slow and Seagate drives aren't as reliable as they used to be. I'd choose another brand for both.

1 Like

+1


The Seagate 7200 barracudas have some fail rates as high as 40%!!!!
I would go HGST or WD, I will never go Seagate again until they step up.

Western Digital drive in my PC just died MINUTES after I posted that. It was running because the Seagate in there before died, although the Seagate gave far more warning.

Personally had better luck with Toshiba drives.

Interesting will have to look in to them, but now that you mention it, of all the drives I have from salvaged PCs. It is the Toshiba and the Hitachi that last the longest and usually don't have errors when I check them. The Seagate however just seem to always have something wrong with them in my exp.

Yeah. The 3.5" Seagate that died in January lasted over 4 years, the WD that died today came from a laptop and lasted just over 5 years. Although the Seagate seemed to be playing about for months, the WD occasionally disconnected and then a dozen clicks and it just went. Poof.

Okay so I fallen back on WB blue 1T.
Any recommendations for SSD?

Kingston HyperX 3K drives are amazing. I am currently running Linux from one. It is blazing fast and I picked up my 120GB for $77. I would also consider a smaller case than the Prodigy. Maybe a 250D or Elite 130. Prodigy looks nice an all but it is bigger than it looks. If it for the folks, it might be better to have it be as space saving (while being expandible) as possible. For example, the Coolermaster Elite 130 supports a GPU of the HD 7990 or GTX 690 size (13.5").
They also tend to cost less than the Prodigy. Either save on cost or redirect the saved funds towards something like the A8-7600 series Kaveri APU or better.

Yeah I know the AIO is OP but it makes that rig quiet. The PSU is more wattage than necessary but supports a future GPU upgrade.
Replace the AIO fan and case fan with the included Noctua fans to make the PC damn near silent.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ZXKRhM
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ZXKRhM/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD A8-7600 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($89.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H55 57.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($39.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A88XN-WIFI Mini ITX FM2+ Motherboard ($93.95 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($70.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($74.98 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Se 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($81.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 130 Mini ITX Tower Case ($42.70 @ Mwave)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($78.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($19.79 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-F12 PWM 55.0 CFM 120mm Fan ($19.80 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-R8 redux-1800 PWM 31.4 CFM 80mm Fan ($11.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $625.06
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-08 15:52 EDT-0400

Thanks for a response. It is quite information overload. I think I'll stick with protygy form esthetic stand point and stick to stock colling. I'm still not sure about SSD. But I'll update the APU to the more powerful one.

Maybe Kingston HyperX Fury 120GB Would work fine?

Go for it, I personally have decided to buy Mushkin since it's made in America.

I ordered the parts.
Meanwhile I wanted to know if Manjaro is a good os for the venture or should I get something like openSUSE?
What are pros and cons?

I was using OpenSuse and it is Very stable but when it comes to multimedia and such, the repos were annoying and everything wanted to change the vendor and crap. It was too much hassle. So I went back to Linux Mint. Manjaro should be fine but if it is for your dad........I still go Linux Mint/Fedora/Suse. If you are going to be around to maintain the rig, or your dad is going to learn it.....manjaro or Antergos is fine.