Yes, you can use NTFS, and it’s the file system I’d recommend for a
shared partition, too. It will probably work fine for you, but it’s
useful to know the limits.
Linux can use ntfs alright, although it has to map file permissions to
the Windows world. This is fine as long as you’re not doing anything
fancy with file permissions. On a single user system I wouldn’t expect
it to cause trouble. I did try doing this on a multi-user system, where
the Windows installation was centrally managed by IT department (and
used by multiple users) and the Linux installation by me. Every once in
a while it caused issues with files I had gotten via Windows from other
colleagues. I could work with them fine on Linux but then they couldn’t
open them on the Windows end (although I could). I also like to use
symbolic links in Linux, and that won’t work with NTFS, of course –
this might all not be relevant to you, of course. On a single-user
system and the use case you describe, I think it should be fine.
BTRFS/backups: I love me my btrfs, but if you’re not too familiar, it’s
probably easier if you don’t try to get into it too far… Snapshots
basically store the changes to the partition made between two points in
time, so you can undo them later, return to any previous snapshot, or
look at the partition as it was when snapshot X was made, copy files
back over which were overwritten/deleted in the meantime etc… That
said: Snapshots are not backups (because they still vanish when the
drive breaks), and it’d probably be good to have backups. If you use
something like Duplicati (Windows/Linux) or Backintime (Linux), or a
similar tool, you can have “versioned” backups that way, which provide
very similar functionality. I think some of them even integrate with
Windows’ “previous versions” feature.
NTFS also has problems with date-time based file synchronization, as its encoding of file-modified time stamps doesn’t correlate with the unix convention. rsync is vexed by it, to the point that it has parameters specifically for relaxing the date-time comparison precision.
However, knowing how long it took plain old BTRFS on Linux to become
stable and reliable and recommendable for nontechnical users (could
still be improved for some use cases…), and with a look at the issues
list, I would not try to use that on anything important at the moment.
I’ll make sure to keep an eye on it, though, thanks for pointing it out!
It doesn’t have to do with local time versus UTC time; it has to do with the precision of the time stamp.
" –modify-window
When comparing two timestamps, rsync treats the timestamps as being equal if they differ by no more than the modify-window value. This is normally 0 (for an exact match), but you may find it useful to set this to a larger value in some situations. In particular, when transferring to or from an MS Windows FAT filesystem (which represents times with a 2-second resolution), –modify-window=1 is useful (allowing times to differ by up to 1 second)."
So… 1 year later I’m finally going ahead, and have these items in the quote:
cpu: AMD AM4 Ryzen 7 5800X 8 Core 4.7GHz CPU (No Cooler) cpu cooling: Noctua NH-D15-CH-BK Chromax Black Multi Socket PWM CPU Heatsink and Fan gpu: MSI RTX2060 VENTUS GP OC 6GB PCIe Graphics Card (nvidia) motherboard: ASUS AM4 ATX ROG STRIX B550-F WIFI Gaming DDR4 Motherboard ram: 32GB DDR4 G.Skill (4x8GB) 3600Mhz Trident Z Neo ssd: 1TB Samsung 2.5" 870 QVO SATA 6Gb/s SSD ssd: 500GB Samsung 980 M.2 PCIe SSD case: Corsair ATX Carbide 275Q Quiet Gaming Case Black power: 600 Watt Thermaltake ToughPower GX1 Power Supply
Anyone see any glaring issues? I would have preferred 2x16 sticks for the 32gb ram, with the ability to upgrade to 64 in the future, but they are really limited in stock selection. There was a stock shortage on a hell of a lot of items, limiting choice, and its only going to get worse leading into Christmas.
The motherboard is something I know nothing about. He was limited to find something compatible with Win11… I’ll be dual booting, and don’t feel a particular need for Win11 over 10, except that I best start by being up to date.
Same with the cooling, I don’t know if it is overkill. He suggested that cooler required a big case, and it might be too big to sit atop a desk. That surprised me - the pictures certainly don’t give that indication, nor does the longest dimensions of 460mm, so I’m not sure what he meant by that.
Anyway, If I want to try and save a bit more money, motherboard, cooler and case are the areas I could look.
EDIT: The other option is to downgrade the Ryzen 7 5800x to Ryzen 5 5600x (The 7’s extra oomph is probably a luxury I don’t need). That’s a significant price reduction, and it comes with its own cooler, which might in turn enable to remove or downgrade the current heatsink.
your specs look nice - especially the 2 SSDs!
I would imagine that 16GB DDR4 sticks are available second-hand, but you might have to settle for a lower speed e.g. 2400MHz. If your Motherboard can support up to 64GB, it is definitely worth keeping, given that it has 4 RAM slots.
I have bought 2 boxed Ryzen 7 processors, both coming with the bundled rainbow LED cooler and found the cooler mostly quiet and efficient. I personally would never seek to make savings on cooler. Some like to prioritize quietness, whereas I would rather a bit of noise and be sure that I am not cooking my CPU.
Since you have dedicated cooling on power supply, CPU and video, a fancy case with extra fans is the one thing I would definitely avoid unless you want it for aesthetic reasons. Transparent panels and fancy looks seem to me like a way to waste money that does not improve the performance.
If you’re keen to have FPS gaming at maximum frame rate. however, then certainly - go mad on the case!!!
I hope you can get your hardware ok and have joy and success in your build. Let us know the outcome!
Thanks for the input Martin! I am actually considering downgrading the 1TB drive to 500GB to save a little money. I don’t have that many files yet, and if I need them in future, its probably best to keep them on externals.
Yes I guess if I want to upgrade ram in the future I can sell the current solution and replace it. Motherboard supports 64gb as he was trying to make my preferred solution work.
The case has a front to back air flow. I think one intake and one exhaust fan. I’m with you on aesthetics, and told him to avoid coloured lights and such wherever possible. No gaming for me. The RAM is coloured, but he was so limited in choice there. A perk of the case seems to be sound damping panels, which might help reduce noise a bit.
