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Ask HN: Suggest me a Linux (Ubuntu) Desktop Computer for coding

6 points by codegeek ↗ HN
I am coding side projects at home using a laptop that has both Windows 7 and Ubuntu 11 installed in partitions. Pretty amateur stuff.

Looking to buy a desktop with dual monitor to get serious about coding at home/home office. Anyone has any recommendations for a pre-configured desktop with Ubuntu setup ? Or would you recommend buying a desktop and loading Ubuntu on its own ? Please recommend dual monitors as well if possible.

Note: I am not a Mac guy. So I would just stick to what I know best.

BUDEGET:Upto 3,000 USD.

19 comments

[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 46.8 ms ] thread
venomsnake
Is there a reason for preconfigured? Assembling your own machine is fun and easy.

Can you throw also rough budget guidelines. A desktop can soak from 400$ to 4000$ easily.

codegeek
Budget is upto 3000 USD. When I say pre-configured, I only need Ubuntu installed. I am more than happy to play around and install my own stuff as needed. Love the "sudo apt-get .." and "sudo pip install..." commands :)
japhyr
I'm a little confused. Do you know how to install ubuntu yourself?
codegeek
When I partitioned my laptop, I googled and used the Ubuntu website to follow the instructions. So I guess I can certainly play around and install it myself. But I would rather skip that part. I am more interested in spending time on installing individual libraries/packages etc. that I need for my work.
japhyr
I ask for a couple reasons. First of all, if you are spending as much as you are talking about to get a good desktop, you are limiting yourself pretty significantly by only looking at machines with pre-installed ubuntu. If you can install packages from the command line and partition your laptop, you will have zero trouble installing ubuntu.

Second, if you are going to program in any serious manner, then being able to tear down and rebuild a linux install will be a good core skill.

codegeek
fair enough. So what do you recommend ?
japhyr
I haven't owned a desktop in about 8 years, so I can't recommend a specific machine. But I can definitely say that you should consider some machines that don't have linux pre-installed.

That said, you do want to order a machine, or parts, that play nice with linux.

shail
Wow, 3000$ for at home coding. If you are not doing anything which requires 4-10 cores etc. kind of stuff, my guess is that you should buy a decent laptop along with a docking station (or any decent desktop will do) and install LinuxMint on it. Its ubuntu based but I guess is slightly more user friendly.
codegeek
I am generous with the budget because hopefully this computer will be used to convert my side project into something more commercial soon :)

As for the docking station idea, that is certainly worth looking into. I could just buy awesome dual monitors and use the docking station with the laptop. But for some reason, I love the feel of good old desktop CPUs :))

nantes
I am extremely happy with a Mac Mini that dual boots Ubuntu and has a couple 22" LCDs. It's small and gets out of the way, works with all the accessories I had laying around, and is well under $1k with the monitors ~$120 each. Figuring out ReFit was a bit of a pain, but it was a one time thing and now it runs beautifully.

Judging from your "pip install ..." bit, you're doing Python work. I do Python backend web development and the Mac Mini (2009 at that) has never let me down.

knacky
How is your current setup limiting your development ability? It sounds like you're spending money on hardware hoping it'll make a big difference. This is like amateur photographers buying the best camera and lens assuming their pictures will suddenly be amazing.

If your current setup is powerful enough to develop I'd build on it. (1) Get one large LCD. (2) Buy a laptop stand and use your laptop screen as your second monitor. (3) Buy a good keyboard and mouse. (4) Get a powerless USB hub for the mouse and keyboard so you only use one of your laptop's USB ports.

If you primarily use Ubuntu, consider wiping your Windows partition and reinstalling Ubuntu as your primary OS. When you need Windows just run it within a virtual machine.

I would only develop on the laptop. If you need to host get a dedicated server for that. You may want to buy a hosted server and let them deal with the maintenance and uptime. Hosting on your development machine will eventually cause you headaches.

venomsnake
3000$ is a beast of a machine. Two beasts actually.

Now my rough guidelines:

1. Build your own. It is fun and easy.

Core i7 - non K part (see below)

Vt-d enabled MB (if you try to use it as a home server it is good to have the option for iommu virtualization, K parts don't have it, Asrock boards tend to have vt-d but check)

32 GB of ram (1600 is fine, ram is so slow that if you get out of the cache it almost doesn't matter how slow it is) 256 GB SSD (or 512 if you will store lots of data)

660 W Seasonic PSU (X-series) (deadly silent)

7970 radeon (Why not, there are quite a few linux games and with steam pushing to linux it will be viable gaming platform)

A few 3TB hard drives ...

Case - something spacious and silent. And we are still below 2K I think.

Monitors - Dell have some very nice 23 inch IPS monitors with pivot. It is amazing to code on portrait monitor.

jmhain
Maybe things have changed, but I've consistently had a far better experience with nvidia cards on linux.
yen223
With $3000, I'd probably go for 2 machines, a desktop and a laptop...
WestCoastJustin
I use a Inspiron 660 [1] and a Dell 2560x1440 27" Monitor. Total price was about $1500. Ordered online and it was at my door in about 10 days. I wanted something with the nvidia card (this is a must in my book as nvidia is well supported and dual monitored supported via DVI/VGA connections) since it works well with Linux. I'm running ubuntu and it works great. Monitor is awesome by the way :)

[1] http://www.dell.com/ca/p/inspiron-660/pd?refid=inspiron-660&...

[2] http://accessories.dell.com/sna/products/Monitors/productdet...

LarryMade2
I bought a desktop from Eight Virtues and wasn't disappointed. Though I wasn't all that comfortable with a preset password, so I did an OS re-install, but that install was "just works" easy. Powerful/fast computer, good price.

http://sales.eightvirtues.com/