While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:
Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.
This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!
You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.
This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!
You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
Login / Register
- Ghost of Tsushima single-player only on Steam Deck due to PlayStation Network features
- CachyOS gets experimental handheld edition for ROG Ally, Lenovo Legion GO and Steam Deck (soon)
- EA want to put adverts in your video games to squeeze you for every penny
- PlayStation Remote Play app for Steam Deck adds easier connections, new resolution options
- Manjaro 24.0 released with KDE Plasma 6, GNOME 46, Linux kernel 6.9
- > See more over 30 days here
-
NVK driver gets DRM Format Modifiers to work with Games…
- WMan22 -
Manjaro Linux devs show off the OrangePi Neo prototype …
- 3zekiel -
EA SPORTS WRC is adding EA anticheat, breaking another …
- Mohandevir -
Manjaro Linux devs show off the OrangePi Neo prototype …
- Marlock -
EA SPORTS WRC is adding EA anticheat, breaking another …
- iorekbyrnison - > See more comments
Latest Forum Posts
- Weekend Players' Club 5/17/2024
- StoneColdSpider - Recent Performance Degradation?
- 14 - Ghostwire Tokyo Key
- Praxach - Getting started with Minecraft mods, and best practice/recommenda…
- childermass - Emulation Recommendations!
- StoneColdSpider - See more posts
I decided to get rid of my "gaming laptop" and get a small, fanless PC for work (console, web, mail, libreoffice) and light gaming (think puzzle games and turn-based strategies, nothing 3D or graphically heavy, I have a separate box for those).
Would it be best to build one or buy a pre-made box? What components do you recommend? How do I make sure that everything works well on Linux? Do you have any builds you can share? I'm not tight on budget, but I hope to keep it under $500 (not including storage and peripherals) since I don't need any fancy stuff.
I've been using Linux for ~20 years but as far as the hardware goes, I'm constantly in the blind and it's always been hit-and-miss for me. So any help and hints will be greatly appreciated! :-)
View PC info
View PC info
That's a good lead, thanks. Successors 3200G and 3400G also seem to fit a fanless build. And Vega 11 seems pretty powerful.
https://www.gigabyte.com/Mini-PcBarebone
(but I can't find ryzen builds though)
but I did a quick search on ebay and for 424 usd you could buy this ryzen 2400G small factor pc https://www.ebay.com/itm/AMD-Ryzen-Mini-PC-ASRock-A300-HTPC-AMD-Ryzen-5-2400G-8GB-DDR4-250GB-SSD/274029325245?hash=item3fcd6babbd:g:qXoAAOSwXtFdg24q
for a little more you could buy this one with 16gb of RAM
https://www.ebay.com/itm/PC-linea-OFFICE-AMD-RYZEN-5-2400G-Ram-16-GB-DDR4-SSD-480-GB-Windows-10-Pro/133177046596?hash=item1f01f87644:g:M64AAOSw5nZdXUz5
(but both of them not fanless though)
looks sweet for 385 at amazon but you have to get the ram and disk separate though.
it's just a matter of getting a passive cooler and the build would be just what you are looking for.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrvyWpisYmE
the No Fan CR 80 E
View PC info
Not only are these all very small indeed, using up minimal power, but tend to have features which are desirable in such products, such as built-in Wifi, Bluetooth, HDMI port, multiple USB ports, RJ45 network socket. I like that they tend to be easy to open, fit a NVMe SSD and/or 2.5 inch SATA SSD/HDD, usually fit one or two sticks of SO-DIMM RAM.
Some of these do have little fans in them (and some are fan-less), but those fans tend to be much quieter than full-size PCs.
Intel NUC 8 (NUC8i5BEK)
Crucial 500GB M.2 PCIe NVMe P1 + heatsink
2x Kingston 8GB 2400MHz CL17 1,2V (probably 8GB would be enough but since it's so cheap...)
All that for around ~$500 + VAT
Now, while NUC isn't fanless, I've read that the noise in series 8 is significantly lower than in previous models and shouldn't exceed 40dB, so I decided to try. Worst case scenario I'll pass it on the kids and keep looking (or I could probably switch the case for Akasa Plato X8 or Turing, or some such).
Other options I've considered was building a box using a passive miniITX case and Ryzen 5 (but the case I liked the most - Silverstone PT13, seemed impossible for a passively cooled build, and most of the others were either out of stock - like HDPlex H5 - or hard to get), and at the other end of the spectrum I briefly pondered on ordering a fanless (and nameless) i7 8565U build from aliexpress.
Also @guest
1. I didn't want another laptop as I've already had many and I was never entirely happy, so I wanted something different.
2. I actually have Raspberry Pi 4 but I don't think it would suit my needs. Particularly I'm not sure if everything I need would work on an ARM processor.