On 2025-07-07 10.29, home user via users wrote:
Good morning,
I'm overdue to buy a new home dual-boot (Fedora + 1 other t.b.d. Linux
distro) workstation. I'm trying to find free, no-login-needed web sites
that are a good help in comparing and choosing (not actually buying)
workstation hardware (monitors, speakers, GPUs, sound cards, CPUs,
memory, drives, power supplies, towers, trackballs, keyboards, optical
drives, and so on). I haven't yet found any really good web sites for
this. I need web sites that are:
* authoritative;
* complete;
* correct;
* current;
* independent;
* objective; and
* relevant.
ok.
Now that you're done laughing....
I realize no web site can perfectly satisfy all of the above. But which
come closest? It would help if they could both sort and filter. For
example, I'd like to be able to sort monitors by how large of a color
gamut they can display. I'd like to be able to filter both positively
(show me only optical drives that can both write and read M-DISC) and
negatively (do not show wi-fi only trackballs).
What web sites do you recommend?
Sorry for the rant in advance.
I don't recommend any web site. From what you describe, you are looking
at component level reviews. Not system reviews.
A custom system build is always a headache but with Fedora, I have had
very little issues in the past decade.
When it comes to Fedora KDE and hardware, in my experience, I have only
had issues with laptops and some hiccups with KDE, VLC sound, as well as
many Wayland issues which are slowly getting fewer.
I have been extremely happy with BenQ monitors and have 4 of them,
different types and models. They have become my first choice for
monitors. Some are over a decade old and still working. My latest one
was purchased second hand, two years ago. 4K with rotation. Used BenQ
at work for years before I retired, and last I heard, they are still
working.
I have used RTX NVIDIA cards in two different computers using RPMFusion
drivers. Some very minor issues at times. Latest issues I attribute to
Wayland again.
Trackballs are my dream device. I have at least 5 Kensington trackballs
on various computers. Some are decades old and had switches replaced.
At least two of them have had some jewel bearings replaced.
I have 5.1 Headphones with USB sound cards that just work. No special
setup needed. All other sound is built into the motherboards. 5.1 is
minimum. I have also seen HDMI sound work out of the box.
Been extremely happy with ASUS products. A motherboard failed out of
warranty and had it repaired for much less than a replacement. Same
with a laptop that was bought used and it failed years later. Repaired
for much less than a replacement of the same caliber outside of warranty.
FWIW, I don't use any wireless keyboards or trackballs and wifi is only
on a needed basis. Wired network everywhere.
All my newer desktops (over a decade old) have Blu-ray drives in them.
ASUS and LG brand. No issues over the years.
I have great success with Corsair products, including watercoolers for
hardware. All my desktops are using Corsair power supplies and I have
not had a single failure in over a decade. I had a CPU watercooler fail
and it was replaced for free, years after purchase. One desktop has a
Corsair case that had to be modified for the video card that was
installed. Otherwise, all my other computers are just generic cases.
Again, I will say laptops are more of an issue due to integration. I
have an ASUS laptop that I cannot get the track pad to work properly.
Model of track pad is a known issue, even in Windows.
Some small headaches with a Lenovo laptop that my daughter owns with sleep.
IMHO, I would say figure out what level of computer you want and then
look at the hardware that will meet those needs. Decide if you want to
stick with 100% opensource drivers or are willing to used closed source
drivers for some hardware which is mainly video related.
Only in very special case, have I had issues with Linux and hardware.
Usually it is something like WiFi devices or cards. I had an old
Bluetooth device that I plugged into F41 yesterday and in less than 10
minutes I was sharing files from my phone with the computer. I just
needed to install the Bluetooth software for KDE through DNF.
Robin
--
_______________________________________________
users mailing list -- users@lists.fedoraproject.org
To unsubscribe send an email to users-le...@lists.fedoraproject.org
Fedora Code of Conduct:
https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/
List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines
List Archives:
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/users@lists.fedoraproject.org
Do not reply to spam, report it:
https://pagure.io/fedora-infrastructure/new_issue
