The day has finally arrived, Linux hardware vendor System76 has officially revealed their new custom-built desktop the Thelio.
Manufactured and built by System76 in their new facility in the US, they told us their final goal is to take "the next leap" with a fully open source computer although no one is quite there just yet (according to them). They're chipping away at the proprietary parts and will continue to do so until it's "100% open source". To do so, they're using a daughter board called the Thelio Io. Using "open firmware" along with the hardware of the Thelio Io being "OSHWA certified" (Open Source Hardware Association) it also provides controls for LED settings and power.
The Thelio desktop unit comes in 3 sizes:
- Thelio - Up to 32GB RAM, 24TB storage
- Case size - Height × Width × Depth: 12.75" × 8" × 11.5" / 324mm × 207mm × 209mm
- Thelio Major - Up to 128GB RAM, 46TB storage and space for 4 GPUs
- Case size - Height × Width × Depth: 18.19" × 10.32" × 16.06" / 462mm × 262mm × 408mm
- Thelio Massive - Up to 768GB of ECC Memory, 86TB storage
- Case size - Height × Width × Depth: 19.37″ × 10.32" × 20.75″ / 492mm × 262mm × 527mm
All three variants offer either Pop!_OS 18.10 (Pop is System76's Ubuntu-based distribution) or Ubuntu 18.04 LTS/18.10 (64-bit).
On top of that, they're now offering both AMD and Intel CPU options for the Thelio and Thelio Major (the Massive is Intel only) which I am sure will please many AMD fans and possibly even net them some more sales. All three versions allow either an NVIDIA or AMD GPU too. To be honest, I would be wary of any company not offering the choice for desktops so it's nice to see.
Images provided to us by System76 (click to enlarge):
My first thought, is that it looks quite bulky. Personally though, I really like the homely style to it. Wouldn't mind having a case like that myself. As a reminder, you can make it since the design of it will be open too if that's your thing.
They also shared this short teaser video with us:
Direct Link
The fact that a Linux hardware vendor has enough funding from people purchasing their units, to have their own facility and expand like this is an incredible sign in my book. Really pleased to see them be able to move forward, it's a positive sign for Linux for sure.
The only downside, is that right now it's not available to purchase outside of North America. Eventually, it would be nice if they could expand into Europe so we could get some better prices outside the US. Who knows, maybe they will one day.
Find out more on the System76 website.
Pricing was not in the details provided.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Quoting: 14I do not like the wood grain, but I'd still consider getting one someday.
Are those feet or finger screws on the back of the case? Why else would they take a picture of the top of the case? If they are feet, where can you find an angled power cable that's thin enough?
I'm sure they will work out the certain design kinks in time. It's something that even old manufactures get wrong at times. As long as cooling and air flow are considered in their designs, I don't have a issue with it.
I'll pass.
Quoting: slaapliedjeCoincidence? If you take the Thelio Massive page and put every single thing you can in your system on that page, it costs 76 thousand dollars!You can go up to 82 thousand IIRC, you chose the last option on 2nd hard drive, which isn't the most expensive (it's a HDD and not a SSD).
slaapliedje Nov 3, 2018
Edit: oh these are the new ones with 12gb of ram and are 3k a piece... so only 12 thousand dollars in video cards alone...
Last edited by slaapliedje on 3 November 2018 at 2:42 am UTC
I then built a like and similar one on NewEgg. i-8600k, 1070Ti, 32GB ram, 500GB NVME, monitor, ... $1750 USD.
I know I went cheaper with the processor, but more expensive with the graphics card. Unfortunately, it doesn't say what exactly most of the parts are, so I might have gone much lower in quality than what system76 used.
I just saw minimaul's post with the materials, list. My guesses were pretty close (itx, H370 motherboard. I picked an Asrock instead of Gigabyte and an EVGA 650W instead of FSP 600W power supply). Sadly, they didn't list their heatsink supplier. I'm really curious as ITX cases can be really rough trying to fit in a normal cooler. I used a noctuna NHc-14S as the beefier DH-15 was 5mm too tall to fit in my selected case for this test build.
On the other hand, I suppose they can use any size cooler they want as the case is custom. And man, it looks nice. I like the wood look. It kinda makes me want to make my own wooden case, but that would probably be a horrible idea.
Mountain Man Nov 6, 2018
QuoteThe only downside, is that right now it's not available to purchase outside of North America. Eventually, it would be nice if they could expand into Europe so we could get some better prices outside the US.
I wouldn't count on it. They really don't give a crap about anything other than the US market.
I was planning to buy a Galago Pro until I learned from them that they'd want an extra $80 for a UK power supply and that they had zero intention of providing a uk keyboard any time soon.
Bought a Dell XPS 13 instead.
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