Wendell, any opinions on prebuilt Linux machines?

https://system76.com/

Wendell or TS members,

I found a company online that offers pre-built machines with Ubuntu preinstalled. Apparently, they offer laptops, desktops, and servers; some of which can be customized. Is it possible to review one of these machines?

I prefer building my own machines, but this may be an option for me in the future.

not a good deal, for a gtx 970 they charge you extra 100$ and 16 gb of ddr3 160mhz is 240$

My purpose is geared towards small business/small enterprise, not gaming or video editing. I'll build my own machine for such uses.

I don't need the high-end cards they are offering, nor the most extreme CPU's.

I am mostly looking at the laptops and servers for business.

The premiums they charge are how they make revenue. If you own a business,  convenience and warranty may be worth the cost.

Thanks for your input, though.

 

Their charge for building you a machine is just too high, i pick the same components i have in my pc and it was 550$ more then i spent, and i am sure they get parts cheaper because thy buy them in bulk. I think there are probably other companies that will do the same thing cheaper, maybe dell? I am sure that they can get on of their prebuilt pc's and install linux instead of windows.

Either way, I'm asking if TS could do a review of pre-built Linux machines; especially laptop and/or server.

I would love to know what machine in their line up you are referring to. So far, in the Desktop section, 16GB of 1600mhz ram is about $150. Which is about average for good RAM. The GTX 970, what was the original GPU? if it is the Integrated GPU, that is a steal but what I see is about a $425 price tag for the GTX 970 with 1664 CUDA cores. About average for a good GTX 970. I fail to see your issues with them. They make solid machines and support the OS. Linux Action Show uses them for just about everything they do.

Product total: $1,427.00
similar to my system except i have 850w psu, good mob and k cpu, liquid cooled, i dont know about psu they are using but im sure its not more the 600w
my pc was around 1200$
base gtx 970 is 329, and if you want to upgrade from 8 to 16 gb ram they charge 120$

That is a BIG difference from your original quote of $240 to upgrade to 16GB.

There is of course a Marked overhead cost that the OEM charges so that they actually make money from the build. They would be bankrupt if they did not. Frankley $425 for a Good GTX 970 seems about fair. Especially since that is going from the stock iGPU to the GTX 970. They are not charging $425 to go from a GTX 780 to a GTX 970. 

As for the other parts like cooling etc, I sent off an email to the sales team asking what the specs were for cooling, mobo, GPU and so on. Seriously, I spent ~$150 going from 8GB to 16GB when I upgraded my system. I got a kit which has teamed chips. AKA they are within the same batch. $119 is completely reasonable. If 8GB is say $65 and 16GB is $119, that is a good deal since 16 is twice 8 and if you were to take 65 x 2, that would equal more than $119.

Not to mention that the price includes Phone support from the OEM for Linux and the Hardware. That's right, you can call them for support.

That reminds me, why did you select an 850W PSU when the specs are no where near the 850W mark? EVGA's GTX 970 Superclocked card recommends a minimum of a 500W PSU. You are 350W over the minimum. When you have more Wattage than needed you lose efficiency and thus waste money and power.

I would do more research on each pre built machine and see which one is good at running Linux. Dell seems good considering I own a Dell Inspiron 17R with an Nvidia GPU

System76 only makes Linux Machines.

because i oc my systems and i will get second gtx 970 when i will need one

the os on a pre built computer is kinda irrelevant

 

Not when all the hardware is picked specifically to work with that OS. System76 picks the hardware that is guaranteed to work with Linux flawlessly and will support it too. Dell is more of a hit and miss when it comes to flawless Linux support. I used to work for Dell on their Your Tech Team program. I can tell you their Linux supported hardware is limited and usually blows unless you shell out the big bucks.

Here are the build specs for the Wild dog and Leopard Extreme.  Leopard Extreme is X99 and Liquid cooled!

Wild Dog Performance:
*Fan/Air Cooling
*EVGA - 600 Watt Power Supply
*Motherboard: Asus - H97-Plus
*GTX 970 Model Number: 04G-P4-2974-KR

 



Leopard Extreme:
*Corsair Liquid Cooling
*Corsair 750 Watt Power Supply
*Motherboard: Asus - X99-A
*GTX 970 Model Number: 04G-P4-2974-KR

 
 

lol

http://www.linux.com/news/hardware/drivers/8203-is-my-hardware-linux-compatible-find-out-here

Almost all motherboards, hard drives, keyboards, mice, network cards, DVD drives, and flash drives should work with GNU/Linux without any trouble.

 pure marketing man. please dont fall for it. build your own pc, install whatever linux distro you want. if you need help, zoltan will be there for you haha

 

It is not all pure marketing. I got into Linux back in 2001 with Red Hat 6. Hardly anything I put it on worked right. Then Ubuntu in 2008 and wifi still is a bit of a hit and miss. GPUs generally work but the proprietary drivers are also hit and miss so far. having a mobo or HDD/KB/Mouse not work is rare and unheard of these days. The main purpose behind going with a pre-built is the hardware compatibility of the wireless parts and GPUs. Since they take the guess work out and pre-install the OS along with any third party drivers as well as provide phone support for issues you may be having, I say their product is fine. I build my own machines but for someone like my mother, I would get a System76 over any Dell or other brand. I built my folks rigs so far but I will not be around to help them all the time. 

To claim that it is pure marketing and that companies like System76 are pointless and that :

"Almost all motherboards, hard drives, keyboards, mice, network cards, DVD drives, and flash drives should work with GNU/Linux without any trouble."


is the supporting logic behind your statement; is asinine and a dangerous mentality. Sure it is good to learn how to do things yourself but if it was a noob and not particularly technically inclined in such a way that picking it up would be easy, I would recommend they start with something prebuilt and easy. You don't jump into the deep end to learn to swim. You start small. Hence System76.