For me, I would get a system that can use a NVMe.  They are about the same price as an SSD, but make and SSD look extremely slow. If you don't need it to be portable, then go with a desktop system. They are much cheaper for the amount of power you get, are tougher so they will last you longer, upgrade-able so they will last you longer.  They also offer much better cooling so when you are running the CPU at it's maximum speed that it will actually be able to keep cool enough to stay running at it's maximum speed without having to throttle itself down to less than half the speed in order to not burn up, and the same thing can be said of the GPU. My 6 year old desktop is faster than the fastest laptop you can get new now and it cost me about half what a high end laptop would cost.  Getting a system with an NVMe is one of the biggest driving forces for making me want to get a new system these days... they are just so crazy fast that they really make your system feel like a rocket compared to the same machine with even a SATA attached SSD. Brian On 05/22/2018 03:27 AM, techlists@phpcoderusa.com wrote: > > If I were to build a work system today, I would take the following road. > > I would go with a laptop with an SSD, at least an i5, an upgraded > video card like nvidia instead of the video built in the CPU, and I > would go with something that had decent resolution. > > A laptop like this one : > http://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-laptops-and-notebooks/vostro-15-5000/spd/vostro-15-5568-laptop/cav155w10p18s038 > > I'd add an external backup drive, an external keyboard, an external > mouse, and I'd add 2 external flat screen monitors of around 21 inches > each. > > Two of the reasons I moved back to Windows after running Linux Mint > for 4 or 5 years was I was not able to take advantage of the screen > share utilities such as Go-To-Meetings and I wanted my printer to be > plug and play so I can use all it's features. > > At one point I was running a laptop with one external flat screen.  > Makes a lot of sense, since you are doing everything on one box that > is also mobile. > > And I think moving as much as you can to the cloud is a good thing. > > Now this configuration is what fits my needs.  What are your needs?  > Are you editing images or videos?  Are you a developer? Or are you > researching Linux, or is your research about external things? > > For a simple configuration I'd go with a cheap used laptop with an i3 > and bottom of the line resolution, add and SSD, add Mint, add an > external backup drive. > > I have 3 or 4 of these SSDs and they are on sale : > https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16820147676 > > I have two cheap used laptop running these.  Great performance and as > I recall they have a 5 year warrantee.  I use one as a Linux web > server for testing.  The other I might use for an experiment. I'd like > to load Mint on it and see how far I can push the cloud. I'd like to > do everything external, using mostly free stuff.  I do some video > editing so I may need a little more power. > > > > > > On 2018-05-21 19:30, mike enriquez wrote: >> I am planing to build a Linux computer.  I have Ubuntu 16.0 on an old >> Dell XPS. I will be using it as my research computer.   So "I will be >> going where where others do not dare to go."  I want a VPN on it >> because I have not been able to install a VPN on the computer I now >> have. I want a 64bit OS. >> >> I know that most people say to use and old computer to run Linux.  I >> need ideas on Hardware to avoid and use.  What would you do if you had >> to build your own Linux computer from scratch? >> >> Thanks for your input. >> >> Mike Enriquez >> >> --------------------------------------------------- >> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org >> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: >> http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss > --------------------------------------------------- > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss