Hi,

I need a new PC after many years.

The following specifications come from one that i would like to buy.

ASUS PRO B550M-C, 24-7 ready Business Mainboard
with TPM 2.0 Secure Boot

AMD Ryzen 7 5750G
16 GB Ram
350 W ATX Powersupply 80 Plus Bronze
1 x M2 500 Gb SSD

The case can handle 2 x 1 TB Sata HDs and 2 x 250GB Sata SSDs that must be build in.

Questions:
Can i make a PC with TPM 2.0 Secure Boot dualboot because it will be delivered with
Windows 10 pro - I will leave that because i have to support Win 10?

Will the powersupply do, with the extra HD's and SSD's?

Thanks in advance,

Jan

Janvanl,

Whilst less than 400w is probably okay, it is best to have some “headroom” or safety margin.

NB Please don’t make the mistake of buying a cheap “no-brand” 350w PSU.

It is a totally false economy, as you will find out when your motherboard fries after a short while and your expensive CPU goes up in smoke!

The PSU should be the first item on the shopping list, not the last, when you are desperately trying to stay within your budget.

At the very least get a Corsair CV450, CV Series, 80 PLUS Bronze Certified, 450 Watt (3 year warranty):
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-Bro...+supply&sr=8-2

Better still, get this Seasonic Core Gold GC 500 500W 80+ Gold PSU (7 year warranty):
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/500w...mm-fan-atx-psu

OR

Seasonic Core Gold GM 500 500W Semi Modular 80+ Gold PSU:
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/500w...mm-fan-atx-psu


My last Seasonic PSU lasted for over 12 years.

IMPORTANT
Make sure that the motherboard comes with the latest BIOS version in order to run your 5750g:
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...5-5600g-38826/

A “3rd gen amd ryzen desktop ready” sticker on the mobo is insufficient, as is RYZEN 5000 DESKTOP READY (see below).

The supplied BIOS version may be too old for your 5750g and therefore the CPU cannot communicate with the motherboard!

I don't see a Flash update button on the ASUS motherboard, so that you can update the bare board, prior to building the PC.

EDIT
I have just found two highly critical reviews (one in Italian and one in German) on Amazon for this board.

ASUS PRO B550M-C/CSM

I have tried in every way to make it work, I have tried 2 different processors, Ryzen 5 5600G (ON THE BOX there is WRITTEN RYZEN 5000 DESKTOP READY), and also on the asus website it says that it is compatible, but with a certain version of bios, ok, then I bought another Ryzen 7 3700x processor, and I paired it with 3 different video cards, I used 4 different ram banks separately, there was no way, I never had a video input. I don't know what to do with it, the specifications of the mobo suited me, but there was no way to be able to use it ... too bad.

The board cannot be operated with newer processors because the Bios 0214 from 2020/10/28 is not compatible. You have to buy an old processor first to upgrade. Neither Asus nor AMD can provide assistance.
I can only advise against buying these motherboards.

Hi Beachboy,

the system is build by a german company that delivers quite good systems.

So it is a readybuild from Terra Wortmann, all installed with Windows 10 pro.

I was asking if i can make this dualboot with Kubuntu-Linux which is my main desktop.
At the moment the PC is not deliverable anyhow, i do not mind waiting a bit if it saves me the trouble
of buiding the system myself.

According to a salesman the 350 W is sufficient if one does not use a graphic card, which i do not plan.

So one question remains, can i make it dualboot when TPM and secureboot are on the machine, Wortmann does not know that?

Regards,
Jan

Jan,

To the best of my knowledge, you can dual boot with TPM and secure boot enabled.

This link may help:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/1396...al-boot-system

There are umpteen similar questions about this for W10 and W11.

Use Doctor Google.

Good luck with your new PC when it arrives.

Hi beachboy2

thanks for the link, I had forgotten about that, when one works with Linux as long as i do (from 1998)
changing hardware is rather rare, i still run Kubuntu 16.04.

The new PC will get a clean install of Kubuntu 20.04 or 22.04 LTS.

I do not use Google, I prefer startpage.com / duckduckgo.com / swisscows.ch
better for my privacy.

I will order then and practice patience while awaiting delivery.

Regards,
Jan

@ Janvanl , I would advise against going with an ASUS motherboard because in my experience ASUS quality has dropped like a rock. While I have always used ASUS for building all 4 of my computers, the last one the motherboard started causing kernel panics after 11 months and 2 months later the motherboard completely failed. I recommend you use a Gigabyte motherboard. As for a power-supply I would recommend 600 watts or greater so you have a good safety margin. I would recommend use use a Noctua CPU cooler model #NH-D15S for that AMD Ryzen 7 5750G if you plan to run it in boost mode (turbo) because the stock AMD leave a lot to be desire. Buy good quality RAM and not Corsair which I find is of poor quality. The rest you should be fine with.

You have found a ready-made computer that you are considering. People then reply assuming you are choosing components to build your own. Typical!

For the PSU capacity question, see a site like https://www.newegg.com/tools/power-supply-calculator/. It looks as if your 350W supply would be just adequate.

Many Linux distos can run with secure boot enabled, but Windows will still work if you disable it. The Microsoft site actually admits that you will need to do so "if you're running certain PC graphics cards, hardware, or operating systems such as Linux" and tells you how to do it.

1 members found this post helpful.

Thanks Crippled for the advise.

I choose a readymade machine with this asus "business" board.
Since i did not order yet , i will have a look at your proposition.

Both PC's that run here, mine and my wife's, have an asus board and did fine so far.
But being mainly a software-type it is a challenge for me to select the right components,
so when i found a readymade system with 2 years guarantee I thought i could save me the trouble
of building my own which i did in the past.

Regards,
Jan

Thanks David,

i will have a look at that, specifically the MS site.
The last i did was to make my hp-notebook dualboot, also through this forum.

I need Linux but i cannot do without Windows because of my business.

Regards,
Jan

The system is prebuilt, with that CPU on that MOBO so it is up to the vendor to ensure everything works. In spite of the other comments about potential firmware problems, as long as you have the windows already installed and the system operational then firmware updates (if you chose to do that) should be relatively easy.

To me it seems that the system you are suggesting seems perfectly fine to run linux in dual boot.

The only thing I would plan on is upgrading the PSU soon after purchasing. A 350W PSU seems marginal to me today, though a 450W to 600W replacement is relatively inexpensive and easy to upgrade.

I understand what you mean. They must be the older ASUS which were excellent unlike what comes from ASUS in the past 3 years which the quality suffers and ASUS motherboard specs on having RAID is false.

Hi Crippled,

as far as RAID is concerned i have an Exsys Raidcard that was not supported by my motherboard
which should be OS-agnostic it can and will be build in the next one with the 2 250GB SSD's.

Hi computersavvy,
I have a good quality 500W PSU in the machine i am using now, or I will buy another enermax
and keep the one from the new machine as a spare part for customers.

My main point was/is that i do not have to build it from scratch myself this time.

I thank you all for the good advice, it shows that all the thoughts i had on a new PC were very valid.
The next couple of days i will be busy working, no time for this.
Latest action, today got a new Canon Pixma because my customer wants me to have the same, I never
liked Canon printers since the one i had in the past that always seemed have software problems.
This new one has an astonishing lack of documentation, al together it took 3 hours to figure out how
to use all the features that my customer/I need. Something as simple as the menu-structure is not documented or
so difficult to find i could not find it yet, all on Win 10 pro. Linux i did not even try.

Regards,
Jan

1 members found this post helpful.

That is not necessarily correct. Most raid functions on motherboards are specifically designed to function with windows and usually do not work with any linux distro. That does not mean the specs or claim is false, it merely means it is OS specific in function.

You should disable "secure boot". Windows 10 doesn't need this. Windows 11 requires capability of secure boot but doesn't require "secure boot enabled" currently. Only TPM 2.0 must be enabled. If "secure boot" is enabled and Windows is installed Microsoft has full control over your system and can prevent Linux to boot.

Think about building your own PC:

• A 350 W power supply is low limit for a Zen 3 based system. It may be to weak for your additional HDDs & SSDs, or if you add same RAM or a graphics card later.
• Boxed CPU coolers give bad cooling performance. Choose a top-down-cooler because it blows air onto memory modules and CPU VRMs too.
• 16 GiB RAM are not up-to-date. Choose 32 GiB RAM = 2 modules á 16 GiB DDR4 PC-3200. 32 GiB RAM should be enough for Windows 10 and following Windows 11.
• Check the M.2 SSD. Most modern Socket-4 mainboards support one M.2 PCIe Gen.4 SSD at least. Using a cheap M.2 PCIe Gen.3 SSD instead is a bad choice.

The Ryzen 7 5750G and Ryzen 7 5700G do not support PCIe 4.0, only PCIe 3.0.

That aside, I would choose the 5700G because the performance difference between the two CPUs is negligible, but the 5700G is much better value for money.

Ryzen 7 5700G:..... £228 ....... rated at 24,551
https://www.amazon.co.uk/AMD-Ryzen-7...91J3NYVF&psc=1

Ryzen 7 5750G is rated at 24,977 (only a fractional difference) and is more expensive.

I would also save money on that ASUS PRO B550M-C motherboard. It is far too expensive with no added benefit.

Using 32GB of RAM as Arnulf suggests would be more cost effective, IMO.

Any motherboard with a flash button such as these two would do the job just as well:

Gigabyte B550M DS3H Micro-ATX Motherboard (no wifi) £86.07:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gigabyte-B5.../dp/B089TNX9YT

MSI B550M PRO-VDH WIFI Motherboard M-ATX - Supports AMD Ryzen 5000 Series Processors, AM4, DDR4 Boost (4400MHz/OC), 1 x PCIe 4.0 x16, 3 x PCIe 3.0 x16, 1 x M.2 Gen4, 1 x M.2 Gen3, Gigabit LAN, Wi-Fi 6 £109.98:
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/msi-...1-aplusc-micro

Add a semi-modular Seasonic 500w PSU, a Fractal Meshify C case, some decent RAM and off you go.

Seasonic Core Gold GM 500 500W Semi Modular 80+ Gold PSU £49.99
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/500w...mm-fan-atx-psu

Case Fractal Meshify C:
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/frac...-2x120mm-quiet

Other products are available!!