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Possible Duplicate:
Best hardware for a Ubuntu Computer?

I'm looking into building my own computer. However, I've never done this before. I've used Ubuntu my whole life and am intending to continue to do so, so I'd like to make sure all the hardware works out of the box with Ubuntu - preferably even with open source drivers (i.e. without having to install proprietary drivers after installation). If that's not possible, then at least from a company making work of their Linux support.

So, what are things to watch out for? How best to approach this task? For example, which components are often most problematic -- i.e. which is best to start with? How can I be sure that each component plays nice with the rest?

Community
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Vincent
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3 Answers3

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In the scope of this question & answer site I am certainly unable to give you recommendations on one or the other piece of hardware. This is even more so as there is constant development going on. What we said today may not hold true tomorrow.

From my own experience in building my own boxes for several years now I have never had any unsolvable issue when it comes to Ubuntu compatibility. However there are some general thoughts you might want to consider:

  • The latest brand-new hardware may not yet be fully supported. It is better to choose hardware that was around for some months.
  • Don't look for hardware that works, look for the rare cases that don't. Check the forums for issues with the one single specific piece of hardware you chose. If there weren't any it's probably safe to use.
  • Buy common hardwares rather than exotic ones if you have the choice.
Takkat
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Among usual desktop hardware graphics cards, sound cards and wifi cards can cause trouble. Takkat put it very well in his answer.

As a general rule for assembling computers, I recommend to choose the shops where you order the parts wisely. Nothing creates more anger and causes delay than unfriendly, unhelpful and lazy customer support and refund policies. With quick refund policies and no shipping fees, you can just order the parts needed and iterate until your system is complete.

LiveWireBT
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I have built my own computer with Ubuntu, but alas, it has fallen into disrepair as it is very outdated, so I cannot give you my exact specs. However, I would use an ATI radeon video card, but not an ATI APU, like the Vision A4, as Nvidia(and A4) have severe display problems at times, and Intel does not work well in general. The open-source driver will work fine, but you may want to get flgrx if you are having issues with the open-source driver. I would use an AMD CPU, hopefully 64-bit as I have had no issues with them. You need as little as 20GB for Ubuntu, but I would go above and beyond as it is hard to get that small a hard disk. At least 2 GB of RAM would be good, although you could use LDXE or XFCE if you have performance issues.

nanofarad
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