Many people have complained about the lack of pre-integrated computers running GNU/Linux or the lack of fully free software drivers for important hardware. Ultimately though, it’s up to you, the consumer, both to satisfy your own requirements and to send a message to vendors that supporting free software pays. You can do this fairly easily by integrating your own computer from its major components, and selecting only components that have free software drivers. It’s certainly possible, and even if you’ve never built a computer before, it’s not all that hard!

Integrating computers for free software: some general advice

As a free software user, the chances are you paid very little (possibly even $0.00) for your software, which leaves you with a little more cash to spend on hardware. I recommend that you use it. A little money spent on brand name parts, products which include manuals or other documentation, and parts which are intrinsically more reliable will save you a lot of time and frustration when trying to get it to all work correctly with your software.

Figure 1: A breakdown of the major components in a computer system, from Wikipedia. 1) Monitor, 2) Motherboard, 3) CPU (or microprocessor), 4) Memory (or RAM), 5) Expansion cards (graphics and sound cards are the most common examples), 6) Power supply, 7) Optical disk drive (CD or DVD), 8) Hard disk drive, 9) Keyboard, 10) Mouse. Unlabeled is the Case (or Chassis). Additional components include extra input or output devices, including speakers, microphone, printer, digitizer tablet, game controller, etc. (Drawing by Gustavb@Wikipedia/CC-By 2.5)

What you need

You may find Figure 1 useful as a good breakdown for the purchasing task. Occasionally you’ll find bundle deals, but in general you may have to purchase the following components separately:

• Case
• Power supply
• Motherboard
• CPU
• Memory (RAM)
• Graphics adapter
• Sound adapter
• Hard disk drive
• CD/DVD optical disk drive
• Monitor
• Keyboard
• Mouse or Digitizer

Additionally, there are some optional items you might want, such as a printer, flash media reader, or floppy disk drives. These may not be essential, though, and you may want to purchase them in a later upgrade.

Don’t skimp on the interface!

You are more valuable than your computer. Don’t buy stuff that’s going to hurt you. Therefore, don’t skimp on monitor, mouse, or keyboard. You’ll be tempted to get cheap on this stuff to pay for more CPU or RAM. Don’t do it!

A little money spent on brand name parts, products which include manuals or other documentation, and parts which are intrinsically more reliable will save you a lot of time and frustration when trying to get it to all work correctly with your software

I now only buy LCD monitors, which are vastly better than CRTs in a number of ways: they have clarity which doesn’t degrade over time, linear color response, and flat screens. LCDs are more environmentally friendly because they last longer, use far less power, and contain fewer toxic chemicals. They used to be very expensive. Today however, inexpensive LCD monitors are often as cheap or cheaper than equivalent-sized CRTs. If you can, buy one with a hard protective bezel to protect the screen from poking fingers and/or rough handling. An LCD monitor can be the longest-lasting part of the computer, if it is taken care of.

Important specifications when buying an LCD monitor include the resolution (unlike a CRT, an LCD monitor only has one native resolution, anything else must be adapted inside the monitor, which you want to avoid), contrast ratio (between light and dark pixels, expect 400:1 or better), and response time (how long it takes for a pixel to transition from light to dark—this is the one thing LCDs still can’t compete with CRTs on). Beware of television monitors when you are buying large LCD displays—they often seem like good deals, but the resolutions are usually disappointingly low for computer work. Also, you should try to find a display that has both DVI (digital) and VGA (analog) connectors. Upcoming graphics cards will likely support DVI, so you’ll want it in the future; however, for now you probably need VGA support.

LCDs are more environmentally friendly because they last longer, use far less power, and contain fewer toxic chemicals

Don’t buy a mouse with a ball in it (i.e. an “optomechanical” mouse). They break down pretty fast and often the encoders will slip causing the mouse cursor to feel “sticky” when you try to move it. Completely “optical” mice (the ones with the LED glow and no moving parts underneath) are much better and will last several times longer.

Keyboards are a complicated and personal issue. My own preference is for a conventional, rectilinear, QWERTY design with “click” keys that provide good feedback and are hard to press accidentally. I also like “spillproof” keyboards that have a synthetic rubber membrane inside to protect the electronics. Your own needs may be different however, and the important message here is to pick one you’ll like, because you’ll be using it a lot.

CPU speed is not so important

Frankly CPUs are fast enough. There are very few desktop tasks today for which a fast CPU will make any noticeable difference in performance. This is even more true of GNU/Linux/X11 systems than for others, because the GUIs are more efficiently written.

You are much more likely to be limited by memory, disk I/O, graphics card, and even limits on bus speeds. On the other hand, because of multi-tasking requirements, there are situations in which multiple processors or multi-core processors will provide a noticeable improvement. Linux will take advantage of multiple processors if you enable “Symmetric Multi Processor” (SMP) support in the kernel.

Unless you’re planning on doing scientific supercomputing on your desktop, I wouldn’t make the latest and greatest CPU a priority

Unless you’re planning on doing scientific supercomputing on your desktop, I wouldn’t make the latest and greatest CPU a priority. You’ll find that prices drop off sharply as you fall away from the highest state-of-the-art CPUs, so back off and find a price/performance point you’re comfortable with rather than “as much as you can afford”—no matter what the ads tell you!

Memory is important

For GNU/Linux users with KDE or Gnome, you are likely to run a lot of processes simultaneously—because you can. Each process takes up space in memory, though, so you have to plan for that: get as much RAM as you can reasonably afford, or at least make sure there is room for it when you select a motherboard.

Shop for memory after you pick a motherboard: RAM comes in a variety of form factors, and your motherboard will probably only support one of them. Furthermore, there is little point in buying RAM rated faster than the buses on your motherboard can handle.

If you are strapped for cash, buy less RAM now, but leave room to upgrade.

Keep it cool

You’re going to spend some money on computer components. So don’t put them in a cheap case or use cheap fans that will fry them all and destroy your investment!

This has become more difficult over the years because newer computers generate more heat. Modern CPUs generate as much or more heat than an incandescent light bulb… A cooling failure will result in rapid self-destruction.

You’re going to spend some money on computer components. So don’t put them in a cheap case or use cheap fans that will fry them all

So, don’t try to reuse a case from five or ten years ago—not unless the CPU is also that old. Buy a new “thermally advantaged” case and new heatsinks and fans to keep the system cool (liquid cooling is a better, but much more expensive, option).

The tough stuff

When buying for GNU/Linux and 100% free software (no non-free drivers!), you will find that there are four particularly sticky parts to the task (in roughly decreasing order of difficulty in 2007):

• 3D-accelerated graphics cards
• CD/DVD drives
• Sound cards
• Printers

Because these elements will most constrain your system, you should pick them, and then choose other elements to work with them (fortunately this is usually not hard).

Graphics

In 2007, finding a 3D-accelerated (OpenGL) graphics card that is fully supported by free software drivers is a nightmare. The marketplace has become dominated by two main players: ATI and nVidia. Neither wants to share their specifications and detailed register information with free software driver developers. The stated rationale is that this information will somehow tip-off their competitors (i.e. each other) to trade secrets in their designs. Scuttlebutt suggests that the real concern is discovery of patent violations.

Finding a 3D-accelerated (OpenGL) graphics card that is fully supported by free software drivers is a nightmare

The situation has become so bad that there is now an Open Graphics project being developed in the community to build an Open Hardware replacement for such cards. This is not yet ready for consumers, though, so in the meantime, we have to cope. Another future possibility is better support for new ATI cards, which the company has promised to open up further for developers (though we are still waiting for the 3D documentation). Free software drivers for later ATI cards do exist, but are still incomplete. NVidia, on the other hand, has shown no such openness, and I recommend boycotting them entirely as a result.

Figure 2: Six graphics cards I found while working on this article: 1) An original ATI 9250 card, still sold new from a retailer, although ATI describes this card as discontinued. 2) A newer ATI 9250 chipset card from Diamond Multimedia. Note the DVI port. Both of these are PCI cards, fortunately. The others are from a surplus and used parts vendor: 3) ATI Rage XL. I had trouble finding exact information, but it appears to be too early for good DRI support. 4) ATI Rage II, an even earlier card, probably no good except as a framebuffer. 5) The Matrox G450 does have DRI support and provides dual-head support if you need it—a very good deal at $14.99. 6) a grab bag 2MB SVGA card pulled from used equipment, sold from the same supplier for $6.99. If you don’t care about 3D acceleration, a card like this is probably just fine. However, for the examples I worked out, the video support on the motherboard was at least as good as what these cards would provide.

The last cards that had more or less complete OpenGL support (because design data was still available), were the ATI Radeon 9200/9250 cards (the same drivers work for both). These are fully supported by the “radeon” driver for the Direct Rendering Interface (DRI) system which provides 3D support under X11. As far as I know, this is the best fully-free-software-supported card available at this time. These can still be purchased new from a few suppliers online, but you will have to look hard. Be sure to take note of whether cards are designed for AGP or PCI buses—AGP is being slowly phased out, but was still the most common graphics bus when the Radeon 9200s were first marketed. Both variants can be found, but you may have to consider this when finding a motherboard.

There are also some older cards which you may be able to find as surplus or used parts for somewhat less money, though they will no doubt be somewhat slower or less full-featured. For many purposes, however, they will be entirely adequate.