OOI, why System76 for those? As far as I can tell they're just off-the-shelf NUCs, and System76 are ~$200 more for a sensible spec than buying the NUC, some RAM and a good NVMe drive yourself.
How do you find them for noise? I had an 8th gen NUC that was unbearable under high CPU load - I replaced it with a slightly larger ASRock DeskMini X300 with Ryzen 5750GE and Noctua AM4 cooler that is silent, even under full load.
Not the original poster, but +$200 would be reasonable for me.
The last computer I built was twenty years ago so I would have to do at least a couple hours of research to find out what sites and stores are reliable, read component reviews, etc. None of that information is useful or interesting to me beyond getting the computer up and running. And there's a slight chance that despite my best efforts I would make a mistake end up buying a collection of components that are incompatible, don't work optimally together, are back-ordered, or are missing drivers or something. Then I spend another couple hours on forums trying to get everything working.
On the other hand, for an extra $200 I can spend five minutes configuring a tested configuration that comes with tech support if something is wonky, and kicks a few bucks to people trying to support Linux.
Given the value I place on my free time the latter is significantly cheaper. If you already posses the expertise, enjoy that kind of work, or do not place a high monetary value on your time then the former might be cheaper.
Hm, that's fair enough for a more complex desktop build in my opinion (except for the unfortunate fact that you often end up with paying a premium for worse hardware that way), but in this case the NUC is an off-the-shelf standard barebone that is widely available - the only thing you are adding is RAM and storage. You can do both of those (for reasonable prices) via Crucial's part picker, for instance - and in fact that's what I based my $200 estimate on.
It feels like an odd target market for me considering I would expect people deliberately opting for Linux to already be more adept with that kind of thing - but maybe I'm wrong!
> I would expect people deliberately opting for Linux to already be more adept with that kind of thing - but maybe I'm wrong!
Yep, I think you’re just wrong. I know plenty of people who use Linux but have never built a PC and have no clue how to do so, and may never have even swapped out ram or disk drives.
I’m sure plenty of people also don’t know what a NUC is or where you would research which one to buy. You’re discounting the fact that you happened to know about the Crucial part picker, but most people don’t!
Some people use Linux because they grew up tinkering with computers, but a lot of people use them for other reasons, like greater familiarity with GNU command-line tools, or just not wanting to need a VM to run Docker.
I think the vast majority of people who build their own computer do so for gaming purposes and use Windows.
umanwizard already said what I would have said, but I will add a few points:
First, you may be underestimating the value of your expertise and the investment required.
Second, I'm glad we're not gatekeeping Linux as much as we used to.
Third, as I get older I find computer hardware less interesting. Just because someone likes to make music doesn't necessarily mean they like to make instruments.
I'm at an age and point in my career that paying $200 extra to not have to figure out what components to buy and assembling it is worth the money. I did have a Franken-desktop in my 20s that I upgraded a lot (from 386 through Pentium 2) but that was a long time ago.
I don't find the noise bad at all, but again, that may be my hearing going :)
I'd get that if it was a full desktop build, however in this case it's an off-the-shelf barebone that you plug two standard things into - but to each their own I guess.
I'd pay the extra $200 if the manufacturer warranted Linux compatibility for 10 years (with a checklist of things like wake from sleep and connect to WiFi/monitor that work > 99.9% of the the time, or some other SLA).
Even better there are lots of new unused Lenovo 11th gen Intel mini PCs lurking on eBay for less than half the price. They have two RAM slots, SSD cradle and up to two NVMe slots and have vendor Linux certification out of the box.
I set one up last week for someone and it’ll drive two 4k displays fine. Granted that was under windows.
How do you find them for noise? I had an 8th gen NUC that was unbearable under high CPU load - I replaced it with a slightly larger ASRock DeskMini X300 with Ryzen 5750GE and Noctua AM4 cooler that is silent, even under full load.