Phoronix is the only one that springs to mind. (Or at least they did some hardware reviews in the past, I stopped reading them long ago).

Anyhow, mini-reviews from a Linux perspective are always appreciated!

Level1Techs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CV086BRZQI

Edit:
Sorry, I didn't read carefully. You're looking specifically for gaming hardware. I don't think there is one that covers lots of gaming device.

Gear Seekers includes Linux testing in their graphics card reviews.

Last edited by Laboratoryo_ni_Neil on 27 Apr 2021 at 5:26 am UTC

The problem is that you need a really big scale to make it work: lots of hardware reviewed very often, which is very expensive. Even outlets that cater to the largest gaming market struggle to cover their costs.

You might be able to encourage an existing review outlet to also include Linux tests in the other tests that they're doing, which makes it a marginal additional cost over what they're already doing rather than trying to fund the whole thing from a Linux market. A lot is going to depend on how sympathetic to the idea they naturally are. Ars Technica test Linux (and the BSDs) on the stuff that passes through there since the person that took over on hardware reviews is a network guy and is comfortable with it. I understand that Linus Tech Tips started doing some Linux coverage because one of that team was comfortable with Linux. So that's a way that it could happen.

Otherwise, for existing stuff, Phoronix does benchmarks (just don't read the comments!) and sites that cater to Linux-friendly topics (like small computers) will sometimes give details ofthe hardware they're using with Linux, but it's not really comprehensive coverage.

Quoting: CatKillerThe problem is that you need a really big scale to make it work: lots of hardware reviewed very often, which is very expensive. Even outlets that cater to the largest gaming market struggle to cover their costs.

You might be able to encourage an existing review outlet to also include Linux tests in the other tests that they're doing, which makes it a marginal additional cost over what they're already doing rather than trying to fund the whole thing from a Linux market. A lot is going to depend on how sympathetic to the idea they naturally are. Ars Technica test Linux (and the BSDs) on the stuff that passes through there since the person that took over on hardware reviews is a network guy and is comfortable with it. I understand that Linus Tech Tips started doing some Linux coverage because one of that team was comfortable with Linux. So that's a way that it could happen.

Otherwise, for existing stuff, Phoronix does benchmarks (just don't read the comments!) and sites that cater to Linux-friendly topics (like small computers) will sometimes give details ofthe hardware they're using with Linux, but it's not really comprehensive coverage.

Yeah, I was thinking Anthony over at LTT should really start doing them. They started an Apple channel, they should do a Linux one.

Quoting: CatKillerArs Technica test Linux (and the BSDs) on the stuff that passes through there since the person that took over on hardware reviews is a network guy and is comfortable with it.

Yes, Jim Salter at Ars does some excellent linux stuff, but is much more enterprise oriented, rather than enthusiast oriented. He occasionally reviews laptops and home networking stuff, though.

The Ars game journalists (Kyle Orland and Sam Machkovech) are good folks, but clueless (to faintly hostile) about linux.

Last edited by no_information_here on 27 Apr 2021 at 5:04 pm UTC

Quoting: no_information_here

Quoting: CatKillerArs Technica test Linux (and the BSDs) on the stuff that passes through there since the person that took over on hardware reviews is a network guy and is comfortable with it.

Yes, Jim Salter at Ars does some excellent linux stuff, but is much more enterprise oriented, rather than enthusiast oriented. He occasionally reviews laptops and home networking stuff, though.

The Ars game journalists (Kyle Orland and Sam Machkovech) are good folks, but clueless (to faintly hostile) about linux.

Yeah, I think it'd be sweet if Liam or others working on GamingOnLinux could do hardware reviews. Maybe see if they can get some hardware sponsors to send them some gear or something.

I should be getting my headphones today, I'll try doing a review of them tonight. Though my ears aren't what they used to be :P

There is indeed a lack of websites for Linux testing, but I don't think Liam has the resources to test anything but what he buys for personal/GoL use anyway. It's probably more realistic to find somebody in the community who tried it.

For the Bluetooth headsets, don't expect too much, the problem is in pulse audio. There was a guy working for two years on getting this fixed, but in the end things got sour between him and the maintainers, and now it looks like pulse audio will never really support bidirectional hq audio, better go for pipewire directly, which has support for it.

The conflict is actually a good negative example of how free software collaboration can fail for non-technical reasons, and how a CoC team can be the nail in the coffin in a conflict.

Quoting: minfaerThere is indeed a lack of websites for Linux testing, but I don't think Liam has the resources to test anything but what he buys for personal/GoL use anyway. It's probably more realistic to find somebody in the community who tried it.

Yeah this exactly. We don't have the funding for extra personal purchases, and most hardware companies ignore us. Plus, to actually make hardware reviews worthwhile they need a lot of detail that takes time away from everything else (and might end up having very little views when published) - it's a very difficult balancing act for one person.

Quoting: minfaerThere is indeed a lack of websites for Linux testing, but I don't think Liam has the resources to test anything but what he buys for personal/GoL use anyway. It's probably more realistic to find somebody in the community who tried it.

For the Bluetooth headsets, don't expect too much, the problem is in pulse audio. There was a guy working for two years on getting this fixed, but in the end things got sour between him and the maintainers, and now it looks like pulse audio will never really support bidirectional hq audio, better go for pipewire directly, which has support for it.

The conflict is actually a good negative example of how free software collaboration can fail for non-technical reasons, and how a CoC team can be the nail in the coffin in a conflict.

Ah, the CoC... creating toxicity by calling out that people are toxic when they really are not...

But let's not get into THAT conversation again...

That does explain why pulse's BT support is garbage. I'll try it with pipewire, I think it's floating around in the Debian sid repos. But on the flip side, I did get my Logitech G935, which seems to work just fine in Linux! They don't sound as good as my Sony WH-1000MX X3, nor are they as comfortable. Also no noise canceling goodness.

But they do have a cool Mic where you can just push it in and flip it up and it'll turn the mic off. I haven't tried getting the RGB lighting working yet, but then that is seriously the most useless feature on a headset I've ever seen...

Quoting: Liam DaweI also really need to do some upgrading, I'm constantly out of disk space due to having so many games installed. Want to replace my older plain HDDs with some nice SSDs eventually :)

Really though, I think my next true upgrade will be moving from my ridiculously overpriced Intel CPU to a modern AMD CPU.

I'd been on Intel since the '90s (Pentium II baby!) and switched to a Ryzen 9 3900X in February 2020 and haven't looked back since. It outperforms its Intel counterpart for waaayyy less moneyz.

Drive-wise, I'd urge you to look at the hybrid drives. Not as fast as a pure SSD, they are less expensive and faster than a standard HDD. I moved my OS to a little 128 GB SSD and my games to their own 2TB Seagate Firecuda last year. I noticed a definite difference.

Quoting: Nanobang

Quoting: Liam DaweI also really need to do some upgrading, I'm constantly out of disk space due to having so many games installed. Want to replace my older plain HDDs with some nice SSDs eventually :)

Really though, I think my next true upgrade will be moving from my ridiculously overpriced Intel CPU to a modern AMD CPU.

I'd been on Intel since the '90s (Pentium II baby!) and switched to a Ryzen 9 3900X in February 2020 and haven't looked back since. It outperforms its Intel counterpart for waaayyy less moneyz.

Drive-wise, I'd urge you to look at the hybrid drives. Not as fast as a pure SSD, they are less expensive and faster than a standard HDD. I moved my OS to a little 128 GB SSD and my games to their own 2TB Seagate Firecuda last year. I noticed a definite difference.

For drives, it depends on what your use case is. Like I play a lot of emulation, which you don't need snappy drive speed when the floppy disk images are 90kb... So those go on a standard HDD. But for the OS, I'd highly recommend PCIe nVMEs. Linux LOVES them. I run my Thinkpad P52 on Pop_OS! with striped nVME drives, and it is absolutely sick fast.

Quoting: slaapliedjeAh, the CoC... creating toxicity by calling out that people are toxic when they really are not...

But let's not get into THAT conversation again...

That does explain why pulse's BT support is garbage. I'll try it with pipewire, I think it's floating around in the Debian sid repos. But on the flip side, I did get my Logitech G935, which seems to work just fine in Linux! They don't sound as good as my Sony WH-1000MX X3, nor are they as comfortable. Also no noise canceling goodness.

But they do have a cool Mic where you can just push it in and flip it up and it'll turn the mic off. I haven't tried getting the RGB lighting working yet, but then that is seriously the most useless feature on a headset I've ever seen...

Well, to be fair, the problem is not just with pulse, the actual bluetooth protocols for HSP/HFP are also garbage, mixing all different kinds of functionality and different osi layers.
But for the Sony 1000XM3 headphones on PipeWire specifically, [Arch wiki sais enabling mSBC fixes the mic.](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PipeWire#Low_audio_quality_on_Bluetooth)
I have them as well, but just switched to Fedora 34 with PipeWire today and not tried that yet...

Quoting: minfaer

Quoting: slaapliedjeAh, the CoC... creating toxicity by calling out that people are toxic when they really are not...

But let's not get into THAT conversation again...

That does explain why pulse's BT support is garbage. I'll try it with pipewire, I think it's floating around in the Debian sid repos. But on the flip side, I did get my Logitech G935, which seems to work just fine in Linux! They don't sound as good as my Sony WH-1000MX X3, nor are they as comfortable. Also no noise canceling goodness.

But they do have a cool Mic where you can just push it in and flip it up and it'll turn the mic off. I haven't tried getting the RGB lighting working yet, but then that is seriously the most useless feature on a headset I've ever seen...

Well, to be fair, the problem is not just with pulse, the actual bluetooth protocols for HSP/HFP are also garbage, mixing all different kinds of functionality and different osi layers.
But for the Sony 1000XM3 headphones on PipeWire specifically, [Arch wiki sais enabling mSBC fixes the mic.](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PipeWire#Low_audio_quality_on_Bluetooth)
I have them as well, but just switched to Fedora 34 with PipeWire today and not tried that yet...

Interesting, I will have to give that a shot later.
On a different note: I am hating Gnome 40. The new layout mames sense on a taller screen like a tablet / phone, but makes less sense when you have a horizontally wide as hell screen. The hot corner is useless now. I did find an extension wgich is trying to make it more like 3.38. Will have to test it when I have time.
Played with Enlightenment on Arch last night. It is still a hot mess...

Quoting: slaapliedje

Quoting: minfaer

Quoting: slaapliedjeAh, the CoC... creating toxicity by calling out that people are toxic when they really are not...

But let's not get into THAT conversation again...

That does explain why pulse's BT support is garbage. I'll try it with pipewire, I think it's floating around in the Debian sid repos. But on the flip side, I did get my Logitech G935, which seems to work just fine in Linux! They don't sound as good as my Sony WH-1000MX X3, nor are they as comfortable. Also no noise canceling goodness.

But they do have a cool Mic where you can just push it in and flip it up and it'll turn the mic off. I haven't tried getting the RGB lighting working yet, but then that is seriously the most useless feature on a headset I've ever seen...

Well, to be fair, the problem is not just with pulse, the actual bluetooth protocols for HSP/HFP are also garbage, mixing all different kinds of functionality and different osi layers.
But for the Sony 1000XM3 headphones on PipeWire specifically, [Arch wiki sais enabling mSBC fixes the mic.](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PipeWire#Low_audio_quality_on_Bluetooth)
I have them as well, but just switched to Fedora 34 with PipeWire today and not tried that yet...

Interesting, I will have to give that a shot later.
On a different note: I am hating Gnome 40. The new layout mames sense on a taller screen like a tablet / phone, but makes less sense when you have a horizontally wide as hell screen. The hot corner is useless now. I did find an extension wgich is trying to make it more like 3.38. Will have to test it when I have time.
Played with Enlightenment on Arch last night. It is still a hot mess...

Yeah, gnome... I really don't understand why so many people insist on taskbars wasting space in their screens, when I personally found Gnome 3's concept far superior, and always loved gnome for it, but I can't (and dont want to) argue taste...
I like many of the new design details of Gnome 40, but the bottom dash and especially the horizontal workspaces are indeed horrible, mostly because they break logic with multiple monitors next to each other. Installed vertical overview extension straight away, and it's really nice, now I like gnome 40 - as long as it's stable with the extension :unsure: .

The funny thing is, the Gnome devs wrote this design has been rated best in several usability studies. My guess is that these usability studies are mostly performed with college students in the US and other western countries, where lots of ppl are using MacOS and subconsciously find anything that is closer to what they know already more "intuitive"...

Last edited by minfaer on 29 Apr 2021 at 9:07 pm UTC

Quoting: minfaer

Quoting: slaapliedje

Quoting: minfaer

Quoting: slaapliedjeAh, the CoC... creating toxicity by calling out that people are toxic when they really are not...

But let's not get into THAT conversation again...

That does explain why pulse's BT support is garbage. I'll try it with pipewire, I think it's floating around in the Debian sid repos. But on the flip side, I did get my Logitech G935, which seems to work just fine in Linux! They don't sound as good as my Sony WH-1000MX X3, nor are they as comfortable. Also no noise canceling goodness.

But they do have a cool Mic where you can just push it in and flip it up and it'll turn the mic off. I haven't tried getting the RGB lighting working yet, but then that is seriously the most useless feature on a headset I've ever seen...

Well, to be fair, the problem is not just with pulse, the actual bluetooth protocols for HSP/HFP are also garbage, mixing all different kinds of functionality and different osi layers.
But for the Sony 1000XM3 headphones on PipeWire specifically, [Arch wiki sais enabling mSBC fixes the mic.](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PipeWire#Low_audio_quality_on_Bluetooth)
I have them as well, but just switched to Fedora 34 with PipeWire today and not tried that yet...

Interesting, I will have to give that a shot later.
On a different note: I am hating Gnome 40. The new layout mames sense on a taller screen like a tablet / phone, but makes less sense when you have a horizontally wide as hell screen. The hot corner is useless now. I did find an extension wgich is trying to make it more like 3.38. Will have to test it when I have time.
Played with Enlightenment on Arch last night. It is still a hot mess...

Yeah, gnome... I really don't understand why so many people insist on taskbars wasting space in their screens, when I personally found Gnome 3's concept far superior, and always loved gnome for it, but I can't (and dont want to) argue taste...
I like many of the new design details of Gnome 40, but the bottom dash and especially the horizontal workspaces are indeed horrible, mostly because they break logic with multiple monitors next to each other. Installed vertical overview extension straight away, and it's really nice, now I like gnome 40 - as long as it's stable with the extension :unsure: .

The funny thing is, the Gnome devs wrote this design has been rated best in several usability studies. My guess is that these usability studies are mostly performed with college students in the US and other western countries, where lots of ppl are using MacOS and subconsciously find anything that is closer to what they know already more "intuitive"...

Why can't I double like this post?
Multi monitor setups aren't the only place it doesn't work well. That is a huge amount of travel between 'Activities' and the dock at the bottom, always made intuitive sense to me to have it on the left and auto-hidden. I don't need to see the running tasks until I need to see the running tasks. And as I now have a physical 'need' to flip the mouse into the upper left corner at times, it is terribly irritating that they broke muscle memory.

The choice in making giant workspaces instead of the old thumbnails on the workspaces (like practically all other implementations) is rather odd to me. It makes sense on a touch screen tablet/phone, but less on a mouse driven system.