UPDATE 2/19/19: In this post, I originally mentioned that the fan noise had not appeared on any VOIP calls. As it turns out it appears both on the Coder Radio recorded on the 18th even after being edited out and I was informed by co-workers that it does indeed appear on my calls. If fan noise is an issue for you, that’s something to keep in mind.
In 2017 I was invited to Denver Colorado by a small Linux computer manufacturer called System 76. They had something they wanted to privately show a small group of Linux community members. What they showed us over those two days was what would later become their new Thelio Linux-powered desktop that would not only be completely open in terms of hardware and design but also would be made in the USA. On the flight back home, I couldn’t figure out if what I had seen was something akin to Rocky, little guy makes good against all the odds, or “The Charge of the Light Brigade.” Two years later, I can say System 76 has went the distance and I am as stunned as Apollo Creed was.
First impressions mean a lot when you’re spending for a premium quality and System76 delivers from the instant you see the box. The box has a clever design of outer space that is very much on point with the System76 brand and look and feel as well as the vents on the back of the case itself that are visually designed to represent the UNIX epoch.
The most striking feature of the case is the wood finish; it comes in two variants walnut (appeared above) and the lighter maple. The wood finish has been much discussed by the Linux community and broader text press and my position is that it’s a subjective design choice. However, for me, the wood finish and rounded corners on the case amount to an inspired change in computer case design from the Orwellian prison camp of razor straight lines and white rooms that I spent a little over the last decade living in. There is also an engraving of mountains (the Rocky’s I think) on the left side of the case that are subtle and tasteful reference to System 76’s Denver home
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Taking a look at the back of the case we have a respectable number of ports that can varies slightly based on your video card configuration. It has the normal assortment of media ports and I/O that I am not going to go into great deal about. One thing that did jump out at me was that two of USB 3 ports are red instead of the traditional blue. Most of the time for most people this doesn’t matter but the difference in color represents USB 3 Gen 2 which basically is just faster; the speeds for Gen 1 and Gen 2 are 5GB/s and 10GB/s respectively. The only complaint I have about Thelio’s port layout is that there is no line out (read headphone jack) on the front; this is to be fair a minor complaint and clearly a design decision on System 76’s part but as someone who podcasts and does frequent conference calls via VOIP services, this has caused me a minor inconvenience.
The back of the case also features hand screws for accessing the internals of the system. I was pleasantly surprised by this and this is by far the most accessible case I’ve ever owned. Due to a secondary hard drive that had become disconnected in shipping, I did have occasion to open the case and was pleased to see that the internals are extremely easy to work with, likely another example System 76’s focus on the ideals of openness with Thelio. My configuration has three additional drive bays that can be used for additional storage and should I ever want to upgrade the video card that appears to be trivial.
The internals themselves are very much reliant on your custom configuration, but I want to mention the AMD Ryzen architecture hear as something that is very underrated in general terms; if you’re looking at getting a Thelio, I’d urge you checkout the AMD options — they’ve come a long way. The performance on my rig has been excellent. Fan noise has been a minor issue for me. In a quiet room it’s noticeable but so far it has not appeared on my mic during any VOIP calls and with anything playing (music, movies, etc) it is masked with just a normal volume; again, this may be an area where your configuration details make a difference.
Overall, I am very happy with Thelio and if you’re interesting in running Linux on a desktop full-time, recommend you consider it. It is a little pricier than getting an equivalent (in terms of spec) Windows PC at bargain prices and slapping your Linux distro of choice on it but the smooth experience and excellent design more than makes up for the marginal difference in price. Let me know what you think on Twitter and if you need any development work done, checkout The Mad Botter INC.
