I have heard that linux doesn’t play as nice with nvidia as others. So what type of graphics card is best for both linux and windows. And what other hardware considerations are there that I should consider when building my new PC? I machine is mainly for day to day stuff, web browsing, games, taxes…
You heard wrong. Nvidia doesn’t play nice with Linux.
Of course it works just fine, but it can be somewhat problematic for beginners. You’d still be better off going with AMD just to avoid issues if you’re only concerned about “plug and play”.
To add to this, I think in general AMD offers a bit better bang-for-buck at the moment, at least in the low and mid-tiers.
Some people recommend having Linux and Windows on entirely separate drives since Windows doesn’t always like to play nicely with Linux. The only issue I’ve ever had with them on the same drive was the time Windows ate my bootloader when upgrading from Vista to 7. Another thing is that you should install Windows first because it will eat the bootloader (as previously mentioned) if Linux is installed first. I also recommend keeping a flash drive with System Rescue CD installed handy in case you have to repair the bootloader.
Edit: Typo
So if they are on different disks, does that keep windows from eating the linux bootloader? Also, do you use something other than UEFI to manage which OS boots? Seems like a lot of people just use UEFI if things are on different disks.
My understanding of what happens when using separate drives is that one drive is given priority in the BIOS/UEFI menu and then people just use the device menu when using the secondary drive. Windows really only cares about its own drive with this setup, so the bootloader on the other drive is safe. I’ve never actually done this myself since the only system I dual boot on is my laptop and it only has one drive installed. To answer your second question, I just use my bootloader (GRUB in my case) to select which OS I boot into.
No that doesn’t keep windows from changing anything.
Just learn how to repair your bootloader how your distribution wants it done and you’ll be fine.
I’m guessing boot to a USB and run some kind of repair utility?
Some distributions have that. Some have it built into the tools like arch. For some you just boot your installation media and run only the “install bootloader” step.
About the only universal way is to boot usb, pivot-root or chroot to switch to the installed system you wanna run and do grub-install, although you need to understand a few things about your system to not make errors.
Once you pick something to stick with, go ahead and look up its process. Think of it like practicing changing a tire in the grocery store parking lot before you actually need to do it on the side of the road.
If the Nvidia card of equal performance is measurably faster you can stick with AMD but realistically there isn’t much pain with Nvidia. Most distros integrate the drivers fine enough.
I’d get at least 2 drives for dual booting since a linux/windows update can mess with the bootloader. You should be fine otherwise since most Linux stuff works out of the box - If you need any reassurance just search the specific part (motherboard, cpu, etc.) with “linux” in the search terms and hopefully you’ll get some info.
In my experience, though, I’ve never had hardware issues on desktop with Linux. It’s usually laptops or bleeding edge stuff that takes a couple months to get ironed out.
As others have said, nvidia will work but you’re better off with amd for the GPU. CPU brand doesn’t really matter.
If you’re duel booting, I definitely recommend two separate drives, one for each OS. Use the bios boot selector to boot between the two. It makes things much much easier if they’re not sharing a drive
I’d say CPU doesn’t matter in terms of compatibility, but that AMD does have the edge at the moment on Intel in terms of performance, energy use, etc. Especially considering Intel’s problems with their 13th and 14th gen Core CPUs.
It doesn’t matter.
