2d ago

Linux PC build (2025)

Hello,

it's me again. Some of you might remember me from this post, in which I was asking for feedback to build a Linux PC in 2025.

Stuff happened and I didn't went through with it. So this still my first attempt at a build. Well now I've got time and want to try it again.

As you may notice, I've ditched the Z790-9 mother board in favor of a MSI PRO B650M-P. My dream of building a coreboot-system is officially dead, thus I decided to build an AMD-System.

Short Listing:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7700X 4.5 GHz 8-Core
CPU-Cooler: Thermalright Assassin X 120 Refined SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler
Mother board: MSI PRO B650M-P Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard
Memory: Patriot Viper Venom 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory
Storage: Acer Predator GM7000 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive
GPU: Sapphire 21323-01-20G Radeon RX 7900 XT 20 GB Video Card
Case: Zalman P10 MicroATX Mini Tower Case
PSU: Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 (2024) 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
Monitor: KOORUI 24E3 24.0" 1920 x 1080 165 Hz Monitor

If you notice anything wrong or have suggestions/improvements don't hesitate to point them out.

Thanks in advance!!!

Specifications:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7700X 4.5 GHz 8-Core Processor
- Boost Clock: 5.4 GHz
- TDP: 105 W
- L2 Chache: 8 MB
- L3 Chache: 32 MB
- Socket: AM5
- iGPU: Radeon
- Max. Memory: 128 GB
- Arch.: Zen 4
CPU-Cooler: Thermalright Assassin X 120 Refined SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler
- RPM: 1550
- Noise: 25.6 dB
- Height: 148 mm
- CPU-Socket: AM5 and others
Mother board: MSI PRO B650M-P Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard
- Chipset: AMD B650
- Memory:
  - Type: DDR5
  - Slots: 4
  - Speed: DDR5-6000
  - Max.: 128 GB
- PCIe x16 Slots: 1
- PCIe x1 Slots: 2
- M.2 Slots: 2x 2260/2280 M-key
- SATA 6.0 Gb/s Ports: 4
- Onboard Ethernet: 2.5 Gb/s Port (Realtek RTL8125BG)
- USB 2.0 Headers: 2
- USB 3.2 Gen 1 Headers: 1
- USB 3.2 Gen 2 Headers: 1
Memory: Patriot Viper Venom 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory
- First Word Latency: 10 ns
- CAS Latency: 30
- Voltage: 1.35 V
- Timing: 30-40-40-76
Storage: Acer Predator GM7000 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive
- Cache: 2048 MB
GPU: Sapphire 21323-01-20G Radeon RX 7900 XT 20 GB Video Card
- Memory: 20 GB
- Memory Type: GDDR6
- Core Clock: 2000 MHz
- Boost Clock: 2400 MHz
- Interface: PCIe x16
- Length: 276 mm
- TDP: 308 W
- Cooling: 3 Fans
- External Power: 2 x PCIe 8-pin
- DisplayPort: 2.1 Outputs 2
Case: Zalman P10 MicroATX Mini Tower Case
PSU: Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 (2024) 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
- Length: 140 mm
- Wattage: 850 W
- EPS 8-pin Connectors: 2
- PCIe 6+2-pin Connectors: 6
- SATA Connectors: 8
- AMP/Molex 4-pin Connectors: 4
Monitor: KOORUI 24E3 24.0" 1920 x 1080 165 Hz Monitor
- Size: 24"
- Resolution: 1920 x 1080
- Refresh Rate: 165 Hz
- Response Time: 1 ms
- Inputs:
  - 1x HDMI 1.4
  - 1x DisplayPort 1.2

46 comments

You can definitely support more pixels than 1080p, even at 165hz. My kid has a 6700 xt and I'm constantly impressed with it at 2k 165. Worst case you can run at 1080 and upscale.
- You are right the build could probably handle more, but I don't need anything fancy. Anything beats the setup I have now. The monitor is basically just included because I need something with a higher refresh rate, than my current monitor allows.
  
  For what you're spending on this, I would highly recommend throwing in a 1440p monitor. The difference from 1080p is night and day. The 7900XT will have zero issues with it, and you can find a solid 27" one for cheap nowadays so long as you're not trying to find an OLED or something with a stupid high refresh rate.
  That's about the only feedback I have here though, the rest of this build looks good!

Why the 7900XT and not a 9070 or 9070XT? Stock issue? Both are overkill for 1080p gaming but if you're trying to future proof, wouldn't the newer card with FSR4 be the better option?
- I couldn't find a 9070XT at around MSRP anywhere, I wanted to use them in a combination with other GPUs for AI. Know where I can find some?
  
  AI is a different beast altogether, maybe I missed that use case in this or your previous post. From what I've read, rocm support for the 9070 cards is still being worked on.
  Edit: Just learned to stay away from the keyboard until after coffee. Also, GPU pricing is horrible all around.

What do you plan to do on that graphics card? Is that 20GB VRAM? That sounds nice, but not being a NVIDIA it lacks at least the CUDA cores which are necessary for many AI use cases which I have.
- I think Ollama supported ROCM especially with the older AMD cards?
  
  I have ollama running locally on my RX9070, I have to use kernel 6.14 since it's such a new GPU.
  The 16G VRAM means I can run decent models, faster than I can read.... currently running gemma3:12b, it's crazy fast.
  
  Tweakers just did some AI benchmarks for these cards https://tweakers.net/reviews/13150/ai-op-amd-en-nvidia-videokaarten-taalmodellen-upscaling-en-imagegeneration.html (you'll need to translate it in your browser). The extra mem helps you fit bigger models, but performance is better for nvidia pretty much across the board.

Hardware is very similar to my own build from last fall, except I went with a 7800XT. it's been running CachyOS since then and works superbly.
- Since you have a similar setup. I have a question for you. The motherboard was released in 2023. I've read that most suppliers drop the firmware support after 3-5 years.
  What I am asking is, is it worth in your opinion to buy this motherboard or should I look for a newer model instead?
  
  I don't know, I never really thought about that. I had my previous mobo for about 10 years and at that point it was becoming a problem, but for the first 7 years or so it worked fine. After 7 years there would be a new CPU socket anyway, so it would be a good time to upgrade.
  This is my build:
  AMD Ryzen 7 7700X 4.5 GHz 8-Core Processor
  Thermalright Frost Commander 140 BLACK 95.5 CFM CPU Cooler
  Asus TUF GAMING B650M-PLUS WIFI Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard
  TEAMGROUP T-Force Vulcan 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory
  Silicon Power A60 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive
  XFX Speedster QICK 319 Core Radeon RX 7800 XT 16 GB Video Card
  Lian Li O11 Air Mini ATX Mid Tower Case
  Corsair RM850x (2021) 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
  
  Oh, and I use an 8bitdo controller with it and a Rii wireless keyboard and both work fine!

That monitor will hold it back. 1080p wouldn't be bad if modern games run without TAA blur, but most games require it. Even a cheap 144hz IPS 1440p will give you a better experience.

Anecdotal, but I have owned a total of 3 sapphire amd cards in my lifetime, and all 3 failed much sooner than a GPU should.
It has been about a decade since my last one, so maybe they have stopped using low quality parts, but just wanted to give that input.
- I had a Sapphire RX580 fail on me in 2023. It was a cheap card I got from ebay, so who knows what the previous owner did to it though.

You're gonna want to upgrade that cooler to the Peerless Assassin 120 or the Phantom Spirit 120 SE. The Assassin X won't be able to handle the 105W CPU.
I have a 5700X3D, which is also a 105W CPU, and smaller coolers just weren't enough, even with undervolting. I was always pushing max temps doing prime95, and upgrading the cooler to the Phantom Spirit fixed that.

I have a similar build, but everything is a generation behind. I really like Garuda Linux. Arch keeps the latest drivers comin' and It's a nice easy install. Btrfs+snappertools come setup by default, and it's saved my bacon a few times. Really nice to be able to have grub boot to a snapshot and just work. And the snapshots are auto created everytime pacman is run.
- Thank you for your response. I don't have many issues on the software side of things. I'm currently using vanilla arch with btrfs and am quite happy with it. I just never build a PC before, so I was asking for some additional tips on the hardware side of things.
  
  Ahhhh have you double checked to make sure your GPU will fit in your case? I see you went micro atx for case and mobo, but gpus nowadays be chonky. It should fit, but I've seen new builds where the gpu didn't fit in a normal atx case due to layout and mobo positioning.

Everyone else already mentioned the monitor so I’ll do something else.
With newer motherboards, some WiFi/bluetooth chipsets have poor support. I had trouble with the Realtek chipset that came in my brand new motherboard. The solution for me was to buy a pcie WiFi/bluetooth combo card for about $30. Throwing it out there in case you run into the same problem.

I am curious why coreboot is important?
- Because coreboot is the only way for us to be in full control of the hardware. Any other way there is microcode which is closed source and we have no idea what it is doing. It has full control to everything.
  
  @jeena I grant you that is true, but under Linux, the kernel talks to the hardware directly after boot, not through BIOS calls. About the only time you would talk to the BIOS after boot is for sleep/suspend, or in rare cases such as the server my friendica instance runs on, for temp/CPU speed control because Linux kernel has issues properly using the MSR on the i9-10980xe, oddly it does not seem to have the same issue on the i9-10900x which is a ten core CPU in the same family, so I am forced to depend upon ACPI since talking to the hardware directly in this specific case is problematic. If you were running Windows or if you had weird hardware that is somewhat broken under Linux like mine, I can see the need, or if a laptop and you wanted sleep/suspend functionality. But for what you describe it isn't clear the benefits. And there are some risks like it probably isn't going to do the extensive memory training of a more advanced UEFI bios like American Megatrends, so your memory access may not be as efficient as it could be, and you're more limited in hardware selection.
- Because it lets us disable Intel ME
  
  @maraudinggibberish142 I personally find the Intel ME a useful feature, it's nice for example to be able to upgrade BIOS without a CPU and/or memory, this has allowed me for example to upgrade the BIOS to a version needed for a newer CPU on a board with a BIOS that didn't initially support it without needing the older CPU to perform the upgrade. And from a security standpoint, if you do not enable and configure the network stack, and you don't have a DHCP server available to it for it do so on it's own, I really don't see what it can do that is harmful.

How did you list your hardware like that? Where it shows the key specifications for each part as bullet points, not the bullet points though, if that makes sense. I know how to make bullets, I mean the data.
Was is generated with a script or did you copy and paste individual part stats from their website specs or some other way?
I have a few ways to generate info, like with inxi or searching pcpartpicker, but there often there is not enough info, important info that is missing, far too much info about stuff I don't care about or I have to spend a lot of time searching for specific data and have to copy and paste each feature for each part individually which can be too time consuming.
What you have shows pretty much exactly what I would like, so I could easily share when needed.
- I think pcpartpicker has different options to share with similar formatting that you could paste.

Why did you decide to change the motherboard? Is it because of Intel's issues with their chips? Wouldn't that problem be fixed with their microcode patch if you buy now?
- Personally, I don't trust 13th/14th gen chips period. I'm sure I'm overreacting but I've simply seen too many dead computers due to Intel's CPU bugs in last 12 months that no amount of microcode updates will make me feel comfortable selecting one of those processors, especially when it's my own money on the line
  
  Well I guess if you have a GPU then Ryzen Zen 3 processors are better bang for the buck

this looks pretty cool but i think i'd probably get a 1440p or even a 4k monitor but yeah..

46 comments