2020 PC Build...

Done deal.  All the parts arrived by today, and I went ahead and built out my latest PC.  Parts of it are modern, parts are one or two generations old.  But I am hoping it will amaze me.  So far so good, the build went well and I am using it to write this post.  Without further ado...

In case you cannot read it, I installed elementary OS 5.1 Hera.  I also updated the kernel to use liquorix (an optimized kernel)... but that's all the fluff.  The hardware is as follows:

Thermaltake core V21 case.
Corsair RM850x Gold Power Supply.
32 GB of G.Skill DDR4 RAM.
ASRock Motherboard (TR4).
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1920x (12 cores, 24 threads @ 3.50)
NVidia RTX 2060 SUPER.

That's the gist of it... couple of SSDs and some old-fashioned mechanical drives as well.

So far so good!  I could not, however, get Windows to install.  Installer hung.  I think it is because I am using one of the very first released CDs of Windows 10.  I will probably have to download and burn a Windows image and try that.

I do want Windows as Linux always performs well, but I am anxious to see how my games perform with this new build.  Granted, threadrippers are not meant to be "gaming" CPUs per se... but they have good single core performance and of course any games that can use multi core will flourish.  What  am anxious to see is how my 2060 SUPER performs.  Supposed to be at least 10% faster than my 1080 GTX I had.  We shall see...

My 2020 Build

I had originally planned on a new build mid-2019, but due to vacations, and other things that seemed like a very bad idea, money-wise.

Every couple of years I build out a new PC.  Usually that PC has all-new, better hardware but this year I am backing off that just a little because, well, I've always wanted a thread ripper and the Gen 1 thread rippers are are dirt cheap now.

I plan on dual booting Windows 10 and Linux, probably going to stick with Elementary OS for now.  I've gotten used to it and learned a few tricks to configure the things you want, even if they are not available in the store.

By the weekend all of the components will have arrived and I should be able to begin building.  It is possible one component may not arrive until Monday, so I may have to postpone it a little.

Without further ado:

Item                             What it is
-------------------------------  -----------------
Thermaltake V21 Cube             Computer case
Corsair RM850x                   Power Supply
ASRock X399M Taichi              Socket TR4 Motherboard
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1920X     12 Core/24 Thread CPU
G.Skill Ripjaw V, 32GB           RAM (Memory)
Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 Super  Graphics Card
Intel 660P 1 TB                  M.2 SSD
Crucial MX500 2 TB               SATA SSD
Noctua NS-U14S                   CPU Cooler
Noctua 140MM Fan                 Extra Case Fan
Seagate Barracude 2 TB           Hard drive



...and that is it.  I will also carry over my other 2 hard drives since they already have all my data on them, no sense in copying when I can just pull the drives.  I will leave the current system and m.2 drives in the old PC, it will still be 100% usable.

Distro Hop - Back to Elementary OS...

Seems like I just can't sit still when it comes to Linux.  :)  I had thought to give KaOS or perhaps Manjaro KDE another shot... but even the lastest versions just do not seem as smooth or as polished as gtk3 based distros do, especially in the font rendering department.

So... I wanted something different and thought I would give Elementary another shot.  The latest version is decent...  looks great, of course, better than screenshots show.  Not sure why that is but it looks better right in front of you than in a screenshot.

The install went VERY smoothly, even configuring it to run BTRFS on the system drive.  When it came time to format the disk I simply selected the old Pop!_OS device and told it to format as btrfs, then let the installer take it the rest of the way.  Worked perfectly first try.  It also installed Nvidia drivers for me, and the entire system worked very well.

I then proceeded to make a few adjustments, like increasing the DPI, and installing the Liquorix kernel (https://liquorix.net/, follow the instructions for ubuntu).  The kernel installation did not fully succeed and, while I got the new kernel, my graphics drivers were broken.  So then I simply snagged the Nvidia 340.64 driver and performed a manual install.  To do that you simply turn off the graphical interface (systemctl set-default multi-user.target), reboot and as root run the Nvidia installer.  Once that completes you restore graphical mode (systemctl set-default graphical.target), reboot again and *boom*, graphics fixed.

The thing about Elementary is its controlled simplicity.  Like KaOS, the devs don't really want you messing around too much with your system.  There is a nice store to install the apps you MUST HAVE, but beyond that you have to sort of fend for yourself.  But, the one thing about it is, this is an Ubuntu-based distro.  That means you really DO have a ton of possibilities at your fingertips.  You just don't want to muck around too much with the desktop environment, but under the hood you can do a lot, and just about any application you might really need is available.  If not, you will probably be able to find a debian package for it somewhere, OR you can install and use flatpak or AppImage or whatever other application isolation subsystem floats your boat.