Thinking of building a Linux box

I have just canceled my satellite subscription and want to build a HTPC box to replace it and have always wanted to try Linux so thought now would be the best time, especially seeing as Windows is now becoming an open Beta OS with Win10.

The only problem being that i dont have a clue about it. I have been reading about it but as it is open source and many different distros i just seem to be going round in circles until i actually get some hardware to try it (dont want to mess up the Family PC)

Could you tell me if my hardware is compatible as i was thinking going with an A8-7600 APU with a 88 chipset as i was looking to game on it. I will also, in the not so distant future, have a spare gpu in the shape of a 7950 when i upgrade the main PC but need an extra PCIe slot for a tuner card

would this work ok with Linux or would i be better of with a similarly priced intel chip

 

Cheers

 

If you want to play with Linux now but don't want to mess anything up do it in a VM. Great way to play if you don't have multiple computers.

HTPC useage? Take a look at http://openelec.tv/ and http://www.mythbuntu.org/ as they are distros meant to be used as an HTPC OS, not that you couldn't use XBMC or MythTV on any Linux distro or just the standard desktop video players to do the task.

THose specs should be just fine for gaming on Linux and HTPC stuff. Kodi.tv is my preferred HTPC software. As long as that APU is a quad core you should be fine.

Thanks for that, was just worried there may have been an issue with driver compatibility for that chip set as I keep reading that Intel is better on Linux.

 

Oh and rollymaster I have just Downloaded some VM software so will be giving Linux a bash when I'm finished work!

 

Ha. intel has nice drivers on Linux but AMD's tech gets implemented first in Linux. AKA the HSA support is in the Linux Kernel. The FX line of chips really show their power in Linux. Just make sure to install the proprietary drivers. If you choose Ubuntu, they show up under the "Additional Drivers" Menu option. They will be the FGLRX drivers