Background
I use Mac as my daily driver for my work and personal machines, but for gaming I use my Playstation 5 for online or supposedly AAA games (think Call of Duty or Helldivers 2) and I use my Steam Deck for more indie titles. I’ve got some Linux experience, primarily via my old Mac Mini running Proxmox with mostly Debian VMs and messing around briefly with NixOS.
I love our Steam Deck, but it does feel a little underpowered, the battery isn’t as strong as it once was and I don’t love the docking experience with the official dock.
My wife is really into Civilization and similar games and I’d love to setup a desktop connected to our TV to use with a keyboard and mouse on our LG CX. Although I’m tech savvy, I’m not great with knowing what hardware/software to get. It’s especially more complicated with the looming tariffs and trying to make sure I don’t overspend on something I don’t need.
Question
Looking for some guidance on hardware and software to setup for this living room gaming desktop. It’s only purpose is to play games, primarily from Steam and it should have hardware which would benefit speed and performance for the type of games I’m going to list. Obviously we want the graphics to be good, but I don’t need a beast RTX 5090.
What are some hardware and software recommendations in today’s financial climate for playing these games on Linux?
What other accessories would you recommend for couch based keyboard and mouse gaming?
Honestly the game I’m most eager to get into is Dwarf Fortress, but for my wife it’s having a smooth experience with Civ6 (she was playing the Switch version for far too long!)
Games
- Civilization games
- My wife loves 6 and I’m a fan of 5, but we do want to eventually try 7, hoping it’ll improve with DLC updates
- Dwarf Fortress
- Rimworld
- Battletech
- Into the Breach
- Brotato
- Vampire Survivors
- Balatro
- FTL
- Caves of Qud
- Persona 5 Royal (although I’m struggling to get into it, pushing through)
- Blue Prince
- ANIMAL WELL
- Factorio
- Return of the Obra Dinn
- Anno 1800
- Project Zomboid
This is a partial list of some of our libraries and wishlists. As you can see, some of them are more graphically, memory and processor intensive, but a lot of them are low performance indies.
Check ProtonDB, e.g. https://www.protondb.com/search?q=Civilization and that, even though very useful
initially startedfor the SteamDeck it is also a very reliable source to know if a game will work well on Linux. Overall the vast VAST majority of games do work unless there is a kernel level anti-cheat which is mostly for competitive online games only.Now in terms of performances, get the GPU you can afford but overall its comparable with other OSes (not to name them) and sometimes even better, so on average, you can trust whatever the publisher is recommending.
Source : been gaming on Linux, in VR and on “flat” 3D for years now, pretty much daily.
- https://www.protondb.com/search?q=Civilization+games
- https://www.protondb.com/search?q=Dwarf+Fortress
- https://www.protondb.com/search?q=Rimworld
- https://www.protondb.com/search?q=Battletech
- https://www.protondb.com/search?q=Into+the+Breach
- https://www.protondb.com/search?q=Brotato
- https://www.protondb.com/search?q=Vampire+Survivors
- https://www.protondb.com/search?q=Balatro
- https://www.protondb.com/search?q=FTL
- https://www.protondb.com/search?q=Caves+of+Qud
- https://www.protondb.com/search?q=Persona+5+Royal
- https://www.protondb.com/search?q=Blue+Prince
- https://www.protondb.com/search?q=ANIMAL+WELL
- https://www.protondb.com/search?q=Factorio
- https://www.protondb.com/search?q=Return+of+the+Obra+Dinn
- https://www.protondb.com/search?q=Anno+1800
- https://www.protondb.com/search?q=Project+Zomboid
… so they all look quite promising.
Woah, thanks for doing the searching leg work here.
I’ve been using ProtonDB pretty heavily for Steam Deck research and I think most of the games on the list have good Proton support or even native Linux functionality. I doubt I’ll play many kernel level anti-cheat games on it, I tend to go to the console for those types of games.
Based on the limited research I’ve done in the past, generally AMD is recommended for Linux, so I’d probably go that route. I don’t have a firm budget, happy to save up and attempt to future proof or go with an older/used model for less cost.
Am I right in thinking CPU/RAM are more critical for games like Civ or Dwarf Fortress? More simulation than graphics intensive tasks?
I have a i9-9900K with a 2080ti and 32GB of RAM (I had to check because it’s so “old” I didn’t remember) and honestly, until I buy the ONE game that needs better specs, not just for ever so slightly better graphics but because it wouldn’t run properly without, I’m holding on to this rig.
I don’t have AMD vs NVIDIA recommendation. I use both (as I also have a SteamDeck) and have no big problem with either, I just work and play, no worries. For CPU/RAM I don’t think it matters much, what does though is making sure the hardware is compatible, e.g. if you have a top of the line CPU with a low-end GPU or vice versa, you will have a bottleneck and won’t use one fully. So just be coherent with your purchase and again check what are the recommended spec for your favorite games.
Regarding the distribution, I’m on Debian stable so if you are familiar with that and have no need for anything specific, I don’t recommend changing, stick to what you know.
ProtonDB is older then the steamdeck my dude, protonb was released alongside proton, which released on 2018, while the deck is from 2022.
In any case, I agree with you, it’s a very reliable source of game support. Mainly because it’s user reported haha.
Indeed, my bad, what I was trying to say is that I believe most of the efforts put into Proton stems from the SteamDeck, namely that Valve invested resources in the compatibility layer before the console but it really started to gear up then in order to bring value to players.
Edit: post amended.
I think https://lemmy.world/c/buildapc would be a good fit to crosspost or ask again
An AMD GPU and Bazzite would be great for you. The AMD GPU makes installing any Linux system easier, cause the drivers are already there.
When choosing a graphics card, I’ve generally found AMD/Radeon to be a reliable option. I’ve used several different Radeon GPUs in various builds, and they’ve consistently performed well. Nvidia users sometimes encounter compatibility issues, though that isn’t universally the case. Vulkan is a strong API and provides a good experience.
If you feel most familiar with Debian, I recommend looking at Mint. It has great compatibility and is otherwise easy to use, and it handles GPUs well (including Nvidia). In terms of hardware, I’ll agree with the others here–used is the way to go, you’ll get a lot more for your money than buying new.
That being said, you can also look for clearance and/or refurbished PCs. This one would probably be powerful enough.
Anecdotal, but Mint stuttered in games occasionally for me and I had the odd audio blip. I switched to EndeavorOS and its been flawless.
Thanks for the advice! I feel like I will have some flexibility with distros and can switch things out as long as game data is backed up and it works with the hardware.
Unfortunately the Amazon link doesn’t seem to work for me. Can you give me a brief description of what it included?
They were trying to send this link and I’m going to strongly disagree with them - that system is a substantial downgrade from a Steam Deck. The GPU is a GT 1030; on top of being Nvidia, it’s 8 years and 4 generations old and was bottom-tier when it was new.
That said, the idea is sound. Buying an actual gaming desktop PC from a few generations ago can be a very budget-friendly option, but shipping an assembled PC is a nightmare for multiple reasons, and even more risky secondhand. If you’re going to buy a used prebuilt PC, find one locally and pick it up yourself, don’t have it shipped to you.
If you were planning to buy parts new and build the computer yourself, I threw together a parts list for an all-AMD system that’s appropriate for Linux (I recommend Bazzite) and has a good price-to-performance ratio; $1200 to beat the pants off a Steam Deck and be very future-proof in terms of hardware features, platform support, and general performance.
If you’re thinking about buying used older-gen parts or a prebuilt system, compare gaming benchmarks of the GPU or CPU you’re looking at to the components in this build to see if it’s an upgrade or downgrade. This is probably the best price-to-performance prebuilt I’ve found in a few minutes on Amazon, couple hundred less than the parts list above, but it’s on the older AM4 platform (5000-series Ryzen), an older generation GPU (6600), and much less storage.
Lastly, obligatory mention of the last PC build guide you’ll ever need. Good luck!
My rimworld works fine in my 10+ yrs old ddr3 desktop. Amd or Nvidia gpu are all fine. Spend more on ram for Linux built. The estimate lifespan of my new desktop is 10 yrs.
Linux gaming experience is okish. You really have to chk the compatibility because some games claim they support Linux, but not really.
While Nvidia GPUs mostly work pretty well, that’s only until they don’t. I’d recommend getting an AMD one instead, to avoid any future headaches. Though, if you prefer Nvidia for some reason, the situation will likely get better when the Nova driver gets released & NVK becomes a bit more optimized.
Few months ago I built a gaming PC and chose to not use Windows for multiple reasons. I would suggest sticking to AMD as it would better supported on Linux. For the OS I’m using Arch Linux which is base for a lot of gaming Linux distributions. 99% I have never felt like I was missing out by not using Windows. Wine/Proton works really well OOTB. I highly recommend it if you want to get into Linux gaming. Like others have mentioned, ProtonDB is also a great resource for finding game specific information.
Thanks for the link to your build, that’s super helpful. The beauty of Linux is that I have some wiggle room as far as distro, as long as the save data is backed up, I can switch it up as long as it supports the hardware.
Yes, you have a lot more options for Linux distributions which in my opinion is a pro and a con. Honestly I would suggest that you stick to one distribution probably the one that works with your hardware the best (most annoying to troubleshoot). All distributions are going to have some issues and you’ll need to prioritize what you need and stick to it. I’m saying this because I feel I wasted a lot of my time switching distributions rather than just working on trying to fix the issue or finding a workaround. Good luck and don’t forget Linux is beautiful <3
I have a T14 gen1 ryzen 7 (only 16G of ram for now), with integrated graphics running bazzite. Civ 5 and 6, rimworld, FTL run flawlessly. Anno 1800 is a bit laggy, but playable. I also do some sim racing and no complaints there either, if graphics are set just right, so I think that the bar for hardware is pretty low. As for hardware, not sure what I’d go with, but I’m sure there is no need to go overboard. For software bazzite is amazing if you want near hassle free gaming.
As for accessories I have a keychron keyboard which was a worthwhile investment and a Mionix 3200 mouse that’s over 10 years old, still amazed at the build quality and value for money. A good keyboard mouse combo is invaluable.
Considering you play a lot of simulation and strategy games, the CPU you pick will probably influence your experience a lot more than usual. This chart can give you an idea of how they stack.
I will say, other than Civ7, you’ll probably have a good time with whatever build people have linked here.
O hello, the one and only other ItB player! How was the mech chess today
