Steam Winter Sale 2017

Steam Winter sale 2017

The Steam Winter Sale is on now! It began on December 21st at 6pm GMT and runs until January 4th, 2018 at the same time. Hundreds of games are on sale. 

Buy both Steam Controller and Steam Link and save.
$34.63 until  January 4th, 2018 6pm GMT /12 noon CST

An example of 9 games you can pick up for under $20.00 during the winter sale.

If you are a Valve Fan, pick up the  Valve Complete Pack which includes 19 games. A $200.00 value for only 16.40. That's like 92% off the regular price. 

Counter-Strike: Condition Zero
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Day of Defeat: Source
Team Fortress Classic
Day of Defeat
Deathmatch Classic
Half-Life: Opposing Force
Ricochet
Half-Life
Half-Life: Blue Shift
Half-Life 2
Counter-Strike: Source
Half-Life 1: Source
Half-Life 2: Episode One
Portal
Half-Life 2: Episode Two
Left 4 Dead (windows only)
Left 4 Dead 2
Portal 2

Note Left 4 Dead will not work on Steam Linux.

Install your favorite Windows productivity applications and plugins in Linux.

CrossOverLinux

Hello all and welcome to my weblog. I hope everyone is having a good holiday season. Its true I have not posted as much as I once did in the past and not sure how many readers I even have. 

Today I'm going to talk about CrossOver 17.0.0. For who those who don't know it is the latest stable release of a compatibility layer. In other words, crossover basically is software that makes it possible to run SOME Windows software on CHROME OS, Mac or GNU/Linux computers. It is kind of like a premium version of an open-source program called WINE that enables Linux users to run Windows application on Linux. While WINE is a free and open source software, CrossOver is a proprietary software and it has an annual license fee. However, CrossOver is the biggest development contributor to the WINE project.

Unlike emulation, it is a re-implementation of the Win32 API, allowing applications to run as if natively on your system. The programs will display in their own windows just as if they were native Linux applications. CrossOver 17 includes support for programs such as Microsoft Office 2016 alongside including Outlook 2016, Quicken 2017, QuickBooks 2004, STEAM and the Adobe Photoshop CS2 & and CS4 product lines.

To see how well CrossOver Linux 17 does its job, I tested it on two systems. The first was a Custom Ryzen system powered by a R3 1200 4-Core CPU. The machine had 8GB of RAM, a 500GB SSD SATA drive, and a Radeon RX 560 graphics card. It was running the POP!_OS desktop Linux distribution. I also tried CrossOver 17 on an older HP ProDesk 400 G1 system with an Intel Core i7 (4th Gen) 4770 / 3.4 GHz CPU, 8GB of RAM, an AMD Radeon HD 8350 graphics card and a 750GB SATA drive. It was running Ubuntu 16.04.3

The first thing I went for was, of course, the "Install Windows Software" button. A few moments later, a window containing a list of a number of applications popped up. simply select what you wish, click next and CrossOver will ask you to insert the CD or, if the case, select other installer files. The first program I tried to install from the "Supported" list was a game I owned called Torchlight II. there was no manual config needed. the game just Launched after the install. Everything worked as expected.

Note: Make sure to create a Runic multiplayer account via your web browser, if you intend to play online. Do not try it via the game, as it might freeze up on you.

Microsoft Office 2007 was the next item I installed. On the way, CrossOver also installed several other components that were needed, such as .NET Framework and "Core Fonts". There were also a few errors during the process, but they didn't seem to affect the installation. 10 minutes later and I could run all the Office apps, from Word to Access.

Of course, you are not limited to only the "supported" applications on the list. You can try others. You can install any Windows-only software. Whether it works or not you will be a carp shoot. 

There's also a good free program, PlaysOnLinux, which duplicates some of CrossOver's functionality but doesn't have much support. So if you're really new to the Linux world, go with CrossOver. And you can try it out for free, you'll know before you buy whether it supports a Windows application you are trying to use.

CrossOver Linux

$39.95
One Version
No support or upgrades
No phone support

$59.95
One Year
One year of email support & upgrades
One free phone support incident

$499.95
One Lifetime
Unlimited support & upgrades
Unlimited phone support
Free Swag

Support the Wine Project

The return of Linspire?

From PC/OpenSystems LLC

Merry Christmas from PC/OpenSystems LLC

In celebration of the Christmas holiday PC/OpenSystems LLC and the PC/OS FOSS Development team is making Linspire 7.0 FREE for download December 24th and 25th. The link will expire at 7:00 am on December 26th. This is our way of wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas as well as offering a sneak peek at our upcoming product line

Linspire 7.0 contains the following features and applications:

Kernel 4.10.0.42 
Web Browser 
Thunderbird e-mail and calendaring suite 
LibreOffice 
Wine 2.0.3 
VirtualBox 
VLC Media Player 
Proprietary multimedia codecs - FULLY LICENSED 
XFS, ZFS, JFS and BTRFS support 


Even though we are offering Linspire 7.0 as a free download users will continue to get free updates to 7.0 codebase through the lifecycle of the product.

 You can download from here

Linux AMD Ryzen PC Builds: Part 3

Part 3 is going to be a little bit longer than part one and part two. I am just trying to fully document my journey because when I was researching the process, there just aren’t many YouTubers or websites out there that discuss building GNU/ Linux systems.

Build 1: Is a PC I build for a friend back in like July. So I didn't get a chance to work with it for more than a few days. It is also a Dual boot system running Manjaro Deepin 17 Linux alongside Windows 10.

Manjaro Linux is an Arch Linux-based desktop distribution. Like its Arch, Manjaro features a rolling release approach to software updates which provides its users with the most up to date applications. The main advantage with a dual-boot setup on your computer is that enables you to run two different operating systems without affecting each installation configurations. Make sure you install Linux on your system after Windows is already installed. So, if you have an empty hard drive/partition, install Windows first, then Linux. If you already have Windows installed, you’re clear to install Linux. When you install Windows after Linux, Windows ignores Linux, doesn’t know how to resize its partitions, and overwrites the Linux boot loader with its own. Linux gives you easy access to your Windows files, and you should see your Windows partition appear in your Linux desktop’s file manager so you can easily browse and access your Windows files. Windows don’t provide easy access to Linux file systems. Most Linux distributions use the ext4 file system, so you’ll need a third-party utility that supports ext4 file systems on Windows if you want to access your Linux file system from Windows.

The Ryzen 7 1700 is a little bit different than the Ryzen 3 1200. Because of the number of logical cores on the CPU, the Ryzen R7 series is a multitasking monster. Because there are 8 cores and 16 threads, 3D modeling and rendering programs like AutoCAD and Solidworks, Photo and video editing apps Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premier and iMovie or Scientific simulation software like MATLAB do really well with as many cores as you can give them. So if your some kind of content creator, you need a Ryzen 7. If not the Ryzen 3 1200 is by far the best value for money. It is far beyond adequate for the everyday routine of checking emails, browsing the web, gaming and watching a video.

Build 1

CPU AMD Ryzen 7 1700 8 Cores & 16 Threads 3.0 GHz (3.7 GHz Turbo)
GPU GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1050ti GV-N105TD5-4GD 4GB
RAM G.SKILL Flare X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) (F4-3200C14D-16GFX)
MOTHERBOARD ASRock AB350 Pro4 (BIOS 2.60  6/9/2017)
STORAGE SAMSUNG 960 EVO M.2 250GB NVMe MZ-V6E250BWWB Blue 1TB SATA 6 Gb/s 7200 RPM (WD 10EZEX)
SOUND Onboard
NETWORK Onboard (wired gigabit Ethernet)
PSU EVGA 650 B3, 80 Plus BRONZE 650W, Fully Modular PSU
CASE    Cooler Master N400 NSE-400-KKN2 N-Series Mid Tower
OPTICAL DRIVE ASUS DVD-ROM/CD-ROM SATA DVD-ROM (DVD-E818AAT/BLK/B/GE)


Should you overclock?

For most people, the answer is no. However, I ran some test on a Ryzen 1200 build and 1700 just to see how far I could push the CPU on a stock cooler. AMD's Ryzen CPUs were designed to be overclocked. Most Ryzen CPUs can even overclock a few hundred MHz using their stock cooler. Depending on your board, you may have a whole array of different voltage settings available to you. For CPU overclocking, you only need the VCore(sometimes CPU core). Windows users got a convenient graphical tool to overclock Ryzen when it launched. Linux users can still overclock Ryzen, but they need to do it the old way, through the BIOS. All my test was done on Asrock B350 motherboards.

Note: Do NOT go over 1.45v. 1.4v would be the maximum safe voltage for regular daily use. 1.45v setting will be dangerous. Keep in mind voltage generates heat, and heat kills components.

Note: I replaced the CPU factory thermal paste with ARCTIC MX-4 Thermal Compound Paste.

In my Build 2, I am running a Ryzen 3 1200+Wraith Stealth cooler. So I started out around 1.29v. Always keep in mind that you need a CPU cooler to match the voltage settings. Never try to hit 1.4v with the stock cooler. That chip is going to heat up way too fast. You will need a high-end air cooler or an AIO. I pushed the chip up to 3.9GHz at 1.35v with the Wraith Stealth CPU cooler set at maximum fan speed.

Next, I overclocked the ram. The computer booted fine, but the PatriotSeriesViper DDR4 2400 RAM speed defaulted to 2133MHZ. I had to enter the motherboard bios, set XMP then rebooted. Upon next boot, RAM was at 2400MHZ. The PatriotSeriesViper memory kit overclocked nicely.I got the kit up to 2933MHZ 18-17-17-39 CR1 @1.4v on my ASRock AB350M Pro4 board.

Overclocking RAM can be harder than CPUs because you need to keep RAM timings in mind. They will determine the stability of the clock. As you raise the clock speed, you may need to bump up the timings too.

Build 1 running a Ryzen 7 1700+Wraith Spire cooler. The Ryzen 7 chip overclocked very well. (Gigabyte GA-AB350-Gaming 3 motherboard)

1700 is stable for all of the following:

3.7 all cores @ 1.25V
3.8 all cores @ 1.275V
3.9 all cores @ 1.395V

G.SKILLSeriesFlare X SeriesModelF4-3200C14D-16GFX  Easily runs rated XMP profile settings (3200 MHz @ C14, 1.35v) out of the box the ASRock AB350 Pro4 board.

Now one thing to keep in mind. There are some features that on AMD motherboards that might be good for making your system more energy efficient but get in the way of a stable overclock. There are some features need to "turn off" in order to make you overclock as stable as possible. Also, remember mothers are different so it is hard to say exactly what features your motherboard has, but these are some of the more common: AMD Cool N' Quiet, Core Performance Boost, C States/C6, or Spread Spectrum.

Without being able to monitor the CPU core temperature under Linux, I didn't push the Ryzen 1200 or 1700 past 3.8 or 3.9 GHz due to cooling concerns.

I read some were that Guenter Roeck's hwmon Linux 4.15 updates will give us the temp hardware monitoring kernel code. It's unfortunate its taken so long after the original Zen processor debut, but better late than never for those of us concerned about CPU core temperature reporting under Linux.

For most users, a Zen thermal driver isn't necessary unless you plan on overclocking your system.

Steam Linux client

You can't discuss Linux-PC gaming without discussing Steam. Steam is a digital distribution service that is well known among the gaming community.

I have looked around the all around the web for info on steam Linux client and I noticed no one talks about it that much. More than 3,000 Linux games are now available on Steam. With Steam installed on your computer, installing games is simple. Any Steam game with Linux support should run on steam Linux client. Open the app, use the Search feature in the top-right or simply browse for a game you want. On the games, page check the system requirements. Look for the Tux logo, the  Linux penguin, as an indicator that the game can be installed. If a game isn’t available in Linux, then Steam will inform you. How long it takes to install a game depends largely on your Internet connection speed, with larger titles take a really long time to download and install.


The cool thing about Steam is Big Picture mode. Big Picture mode is a big user interface, which optimizes the Steam display to work on high-definition televisions.
I was able to control Steam with my Xbox 360 gamepad on my 37intch HDTV. Big picture mode is gamepad friendly. Gamepad support includes but not limited to XBox 360, Xbox One, and Generic X-Input controller configurator support, as well as support for third-party PlayStation 4 controllers like those from MadCatz, Armor, HORI along with the Steam Controller.

Before getting you started with Steam on your GNU+Linux device, meets the minimum hardware requirements published by Steam developers Valve. Steam requires an Internet connection for digital delivery, the faster the better, and the latest graphics driver.

MINIMUM:

OS: Linux Kernel 3.0 or above
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.8Ghz or equivalent
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: OpenGL 3.0 support (2.1 with ARB extensions acceptable)
Hard Disk Space: 500 GB HD space
Input: Keyboard/Mouse

RECOMMENDED:

OS: Linux Kernel 4.0 or above
Processor: Intel Core i7-3770K/AMD RYZEN 3 1300X or newer architecture are recommended
Memory: 8-16 GB RAM
Graphics: OpenGL 4.6+ support/Vulkan
Hard Disk Space: 1 TB HD space
Input: Keyboard/Mouse Gamepad

It wasn't very hard or expensive to build the Steam Box A or B. It is more of a case of know-exactly-what-you-are-doing. You don't want to get the wrong parts for the build because it can cost you more than it should. You just have to do decent research. My Steam Box A or B build had me gaming on my HDTV at a fraction of the cost of pre-built Steam Machines.

Build: A 

CPU: Intel Pentium G4560 (Kaby Lake), 2 Cores & 4 Threads, 3.5GHz
GPU: GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1050ti GV-N105TD5-4GD 4GB
RAM: HyperX Fury 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4 2400MHz DRAM
MOTHERBOARD: ASRock H270M-ITX/ac (Mini ITX)
STORAGE:   Seagate Momentus XT 750GB 7200RPM 2.5" (ST750LX003) SSHD
SOUND: Onboard
NETWORK: Onboard (wired gigabit Ethernet, 802.11ac WiFi)
PSU: EVGA 500 BQ, 80+ BRONZE 500W, Semi-Modular (110-BQ-0500-K1)
CASE: Raven RVZ03 chassis

Build: B

CPU:  AMD Ryzen 7 1700 8 Cores & 16 Threads 3.0 GHz (3.7 GHz Turbo) 
GPU:  GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1050ti GV-N105TD5-4GD
RAM:  G.SKILL Flare X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) (F4-3200C14D-16GFX) 
MOTHERBOARD: ASRock AB350 Pro4 (BIOS 2.60  6/9/2017)
STORAGE:  SAMSUNG 960 EVO M.2 250GB NVMe MZ-V6E250BW+WB Blue 1TB SATA 6 Gb/s 7200 RPM (WD 10EZEX)
SOUND: Onboard
NETWORK:  Onboard (wired gigabit Ethernet)
PSU:  EVGA 650 B3, 80 Plus BRONZE 650W, Fully Modular 
CASE:  Cooler Master N400 NSE-400-KKN2 N-Series Mid Tower 
OPTICAL DRIVE: ASUS DVD-ROM/CD-ROM SATA DVD-ROM (DVD-E818AAT/BLK/B/GE)

Build A and B needs a Linux Distro, and each Distro has its pros and cons. The Linux Distros I used with the Steam Client:

• Ubuntu 17.10
• Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS
• openSUSE Tumbleweed
• Fedora 27
• Kubuntu 17.10

Games I played using Build A and Build B

• Dust: An Elysian Tail
• Rocket League
• Left 4 Dead 2
• Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
• Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel
• ARK: Survival Of The Fittest
• Life is Strange
• Welcome to Moreytown
• Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
• POSTAL 2
• Torchlight II
• Dota 2

With the official steam client, I have been playing big powerhouse games, like Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel on GNU+Linux without any issues.They all ran without any headaches, Knights of the Old Republic II, Life is Strange, and Torchlight II all run great. But have to think about your graphics card choice. It really does matters more on Linux desktop than on Windows desktop. AMD drivers have gotten better recently, and they are open largely source, but Nvidia's proprietary driver is still better in the world of GNU+Linux.

RECOMMENDED: Nvidia 1000 series graphics cards for Steam Linux gaming. 

Firefox Quantum (Firefox 57)

Mozilla famously challenged the dominance of Microsoft's Internet Explorer when it launched Firefox 1.0 in 2004. I like many have used Firefox for well over a decade on Windows Linux and Android. Firefox 57 is not an incremental release like the others, but something new. Historically, Firefox ran only on a single CPU thread. However, Firefox 57 has evolved the entire browser experience by allowing its browser to take advantage of all the multi-core processing power on modern systems. Multi-core processors are so common these days, as time goes on CPU counts will reach even higher at lower and lower prices. What use is a 16-thread plus processor if we're only using one thread for web browsing? Now because of that, the Firefox may consume less memory, but its CPU usage is off the charts. I tested Firefox Quantum on a Laptop with an Intel Celeron 847 (Sandy Bridge) which is an Ultra Low Voltage (ULV) dual-core processor. The system has just 4GB of ram and this browser never made the laptop hard to use or unresponsive. So if you have a system with a Ryzen 1700 with 16GB ram, CPU usage is not going to be an issue.

Aesthetically, Firefox looks just like both Chrome and Chromium. So the interface is well organized, uncluttered, which makes navigation easy. It has a voice interaction add-on, which lets you browse the internet using simple voice commands. It includes a built-in PDF viewer, which means you don’t have to open PDF files in a separate program.  A problem you will run into going from Firefox 56 to 57 is extra restrictions imposed by WebExtensions which means some existing add-ons are simply unable to do what they once did.  So, in other words, legacy extensions will NO longer work. However, should decide to upgrade you will notice that the new Firefox Quantum is blazing fast. I do see speeds up to twice as fast as a year ago. As stated before the multi-process capability, for example, is a major part of Quantum's speed boost. 

Web browsers are like operating systems these days. They are not just for looking at web pages anymore.  It's your email reader,  music player,  video player, video conferencing, you can even do gaming. Firefox does come pre-loaded on most Linux distros, so if you are reading this post most likely you are already using Firefox.

Pop!_ OS

In the middle of 2017, System76 the company best known for selling Linux laptops that come pre-loaded with Ubuntu is now pushing their own operating system. According to System76’s development approach, Pop!_OS is created for the people who use their computers to create things, particularly in computer science and maker fields. I am not really sure what that means. Are they saying Pop!_OS was made only for developers?

When installing Pop!_ OS on my none System76 PC  (ASRock AB350M Pro4 motherboard) the first thing that caught my eye during setup was the user account creation.  Unlike a lot of other OSes that will take whatever password you give it, the setup demands a password that is at least reasonably strong.On My first boot up what I found was an Ubuntu-derived distribution, using a System76-themed GNOME desktop, and not really that much more. Pop!_ OS is based on Ubuntu 17.10 Artful Aardvark and using the GNOME desktop environment. It includes the usual tools found on a default Ubuntu desktop 17.10 that comes with the newest set of software available: Linux 4.13, Firefox 56.0, LibreOffice 5.4, GNOME 3.26, Driverless printing and a lot more. Just like any other non-LTS Ubuntu release. Ubuntu 17.10 is the last stable release before the 18.04 long-term-support release.

However, I did notice some key differences:

1. The Pop!_OS community is in its infancy.
2. Pop!_OS cuts back on the number of programs preinstalled.
3. In Pop!_OS, AppCenter is known as the Pop!_Shop.
4. Pop!_OS  provides a separate version for machines with certain graphics cards. 
5. Pop!_OS  is defaulting to Wayland. That can be a problem for people who rely on the NVIDIA proprietary driver.

The nice thing is, System76 tweaked the Adapta GTK theme and Papirus icon set to create their own Pop theme and icons. I really like their brown, blue, and orange interface that looks much better than Canonical Ltd., ubuntu gnome desktop look and feel. I've been using Pop!_OS as my Linux environment for almost a month now and I spent a lot of time playing Torchlight II, Never Alone and encoding DVDs with Handbrake.

Final Thoughts

Pop OS is very comfortable for daily use. As far as I can see Pop!_OS  is pretty much a re-branded Ubuntu 17.10 Artful Aardvark. Unlike Ubuntu, Pop!_OS comes in two different versions, one for Intel /AMD graphics chipsets, and those with Nvidia graphics chipsets. The NVIDIA image comes with the proprietary NVIDIA drivers pre-installed. The Intel/AMD image is 1.75GB and the NVIDIA image is 1.91GB. You won't find Ubuntu Dock on the desktop. It uses the default Gnome application menu, which seems faster too me.  There are no games, photo managers, music managers or graphics programs preinstalled, but you can install more software later via Pop! Shop. 

Hardware used in this review

My physical test equipment for this review was with the following specifications:

Processor: AMD RYZEN 3 1200 4-Core CPU
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO 500Gb 2.5 SSD+WB Blue 1TB SATA 6 Gb/s 7200 RPM
Memory: 4GB of RAM
Networking: Realtek 8111GR
Display: AMD RX 560 4GB

Linux AMD Ryzen PC Builds: Part 2

This is part two of my post about putting together a Linux PC. There are plenty of people out there building Windows "gaming-rigs", but very few people talking about building GNU PCs.   

One of the more daunting aspects of putting together a GNU+ Linux is making sure the software and hardware you buy actually work with each other. It’s tedious and time-consuming to be sure. So its best not to worry too much about getting the latest and greatest. When trying to so-called future-proofing a PC you will find it isn’t a very good idea. A lot of expensive components provide diminishing returns. Mid-to-high components is that best way to go. You get more for your money. Build 2 was put together for around $700.00 U.S. It does everything I need it to. Software development, general office use, and light gaming. I can even run processor-intensive tasks such as video encoding and the project will get done, but the tradeoff is the time it will take.

This is my personal test PC. I have been distro hopping and throwing everything at this system since August of this year. This is the base version of the PC I built. If you buy the parts below and you're going to have an amazing GNU/Linux machine. And it does very well with all Linux distributions running kernel 4.10 or higher. I am posting this entry running System76s, Pop!_OS.

At the heart of my RYZEN Linux build is the AMD RYZEN 3 1200.This is a four core, four thread CPU has a base clock of 3.1GHz and max turbo speed of 3.4GHz. It has a total L1 cache of 576KB, a total L2 cache of 2MB, and a total L3 cache of 8MB. As with all other Ryzen line processors, this CPU is unlocked and ready for overclocking. This processor fits into the AM4 socket and is built on 14nm. The processor comes with a Wraith stealth cooler, which is a phenomenal value considering it is free. I also used  Arctic MX-4.  I got it to replace the stock thermal paste that came with the Wraith stealth cooler. MX-4 spreads quite easily and is not electrically conductive so it allows a beginner some leeway for mistakes and will not fry out their motherboard or other parts. The processor draws 65 watts of power and can safely reach up to 95 degrees C. Now keep in mind the best temperature for your PC is less than 70'C more than 80'C is hot and will reduce the lifespan of this CPU. The Ryzen 5 1200 supports DDR4 memory in a dual-channel configuration.

I went with the GNU/Linux friendly. ASRock AB350M Pro4 motherboard. This is a good board for the price and comes with the B350 chipset which will allow me to overclock the AMD Ryzen 3 1200 processor. This motherboard supports four (4) modules of DDR4 RAM clocked from 2133MHz to 3200MHz and up to 64GB total memory. There are six (4) SATAIII, 6 GB/s ports, and onboard USB 3.0 headers. 

For ram, I am running 8GB PatriotSeriesViper Elite (Model PVE48G240C5KRD)  DDR4 2400 (PC4 19200). The computer booted fine, but RAM speed defaulted to 2133MHZ. I entered the motherboard bios, set XMP then rebooted. Upon next boot, RAM was at 2400MHZ with no problems.

For storage, Intel 545s Series 2.5" 256GB  64-Layer 3D NAND Solid State Drive for the boot drive and a Western Digital Blue 1TB 7200 RPM mechanical hard drive. So the system does boot up fast with the Intel 545s Series drive and it will have adequate storage with the 1TB mechanical hard drive.

Cryptocurrency mining has sent graphics card prices skyrocketing. It’s impossible to find most graphics cards at anywhere near MSRP.The graphics card I have chosen for this build is the Sapphire Radeon PULSE RX 560 4GB video card. If you want to play AAA games, go with Nvidia card they clearly have much better performance in GNU/Linux plus some games don't even support AMD at all. This system is not meant for gaming so it is a moot point and AMD RXs are great because of the better open source driver. Radeon RX 560 was tested with Linux 4.13 + Mesa 17.2.2. 

Last but not least, I went with the MasterBox Lite 3 case. This case is a great option, especially if you're looking for a case to hold any kind of drive. It has plenty of room to build in.The case ships with a single 120mm fan pre-installed in the rear, with additional space for two 120mm fans, or a 240mm radiator, up front. I added two be quiet! BL070 SILENTWINGS 3 PWM 120mm HIGH-SPEED fans up front. The system is cooled with positive air pressure. The two fans upfront is pulling in more air than the rear fan can push out. The surplus of air is forced to push air out of the case through the many cracks inside a chassis. The one constraint when employing positive air pressure within a PC enclosure is that the intake fans MUST have good filters installed on them. That no problem because the MasterBox Lite 3 as a magnetic front dust filter over the two SILENT WINGS fans that can be easily removed without tools and cleaned. I installed EVGA 450 B3,450W fully-modular power supply which has more than adequate power to support all of the components of this build. Its 80 Plus BRONZE and has the ECO Intelligent Thermal Control System that eliminates fan noise at low to medium loads.

Note: Keep in mind the above list of components does not include a monitor, keyboard, mouse, and either a set of speakers or a headset for audio.

Note: You can save over 100.00 U.S. on this build by getting rid of the SSD and only going with the mechanical drive and going with 2 budget 120mm front fans.