[kwlug-disc] New Linux PC Build Advice

[Jason]

Hey all,

My current desktop PC is 12 years old, and it's time for an upgrade.
I use it for gaming and development, and I want something fairly
balanced, but leaning more towards gaming performance.

More details in this thread:

https://old.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/16yh3b4/need_advice_12_year_old_gamingdevelopment_pc/

I wanted to solicit advice on a few things:

=========================
1.  Hardware

I put together a parts list, and I've started picking up items, but if
there's something glaringly wrong, I can always return parts in the
next few weeks.  I'm planning on buying most of the parts around Black
Friday in November.

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/theoneblackmage/saved/#view=tQdh99

I've already picked up the CPU, RAM, and Hard Drive(s).  Jason E had
mentioned at the last in-person meetup to RAID-0 the drives, and I got
two 4TB SSDs, so that's probably what I'll do.

I bought the PSU as well, but it's not on the site list to choose:
-Corsair RMx Shift 1200-Watt PCI-E 5.0 ATX Modular Power Supply
-Hopefully this is proper ATX 3.0 (it says certified)
-Sounds like it has the proper power connectors for modern GPU

For brands, I prefer to stay away from Asus and AsRock.  Favoring
Gigabyte and MSI.  I've heard a few bad things about Gigabyte warranty
support, but nothing concrete.

I'm thinking a full AMD system makes sense for a lot of reasons,
mainly AMD EXPO and AMD Smart Access Memory.

=========================
2.  Linux Distribution

I've been using Linux Mint with XFCE, but I want to get away from
Ubuntu.  I do like Debian, but I'm not convinced I could keep up to
date with newer packages/kernels on Stable. Any advice on staying with
a pure Debian setup would be appreciated, but it it doesn't make sense
I can bite the bullet.

I'm debating switching to Fedora and using GNOME with Wayland.  I
haven't used Wayland before (XFCE still uses X11 and is only
roadmapping Wayland support).  From what I've read, AMD supports
Wayland a bit better, and I like the idea of the open source drivers.

I've used Amazon Linux quite a bit, so switching to Fedora wouldn't be
a huge stretch and I wouldn't mind the extra hand-on experience with
it.  Amazon Linux 2 was based on CentOS, and Amazon Linux 2023 is
based on Fedora.

=========================
3.  Gaming

I don't expect I'll be playing a lot of games with Ray Tracing, and
that's one of the reasons I'm pretty comfortable not going with an
Nvidia GPU.

I plan on gaming at 1440p as close to 144Hz refresh as possible, since
I have three LG Ultragear 27GL850-B 27" monitors.  I usually only game
on one, and have other things open on the other monitors.


I mainly play older titles and I've got a pretty hefty backlog of
games on Steam, Battle.net, Epic Games, Good Old Games, Humble Bundle,
etc.  There are some "newer" titles I want to play.  Advice on the
best way to get these working would be appreciated.  I know I can use
Proton for a lot of them, and Lutris or Bottles for others.

-Daily Driver:  World of Warships (Wargaming.net Launcher) - annoying
to update though
-Blizzard Games:  Overwatch 2, Diablo III/IV, Starcraft II
-Open World RPG:  Fallout 4, Starfield (not for a while), The Outer Worlds
-FPS:  Borderlands 3, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, DOOM/Doom Eternal, Deus Ex
-Other:  Minecraft, Nier Automata

=========================
4.  Streaming

I stream games sometimes using OBS.  Mainly Jackbox, but it would be
nice to be able to stream other games.  Want to make sure my setup
won't have issues with that.

I usually use Twitch, but I could stream on Youtube - it looks like
they have better encoding options:

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2853702?hl=en
https://help.twitch.tv/s/article/broadcasting-guidelines?language=en_US

Does NVIDIA NVENC make a huge difference?  Looks like maybe I could
use my old GTX 1070 to offload encoding?

=========================
5.  Other considerations?

Nothing specific here, just anything else I should consider.  I will
be doing some dev work on this computer, but a lot of it is deployed
in the cloud, and would just be tested locally.

I appreciate any advice or recommendations!

Thanks,
Jason