New folding build. Linux?

I'm starting to build a third machine in my folding farm. Presently I have a Windows 8.1 that doubles as my main rig. I also have a Windows Vista machine as a dedicated folder. My new machine will have a core i7-2600 and 4 GB RAM. I will populate it with three AMD GPU's.

I'm thinking that Linux would be my best bet. What flavor of Linux is recommended for this?

I'd say Ubuntu, that's easy to set-up (but use ext3 for file system, not ext4 - that one works much slower with folding), a lot of people use it, therefore a lot of forums available online, it has some friendly GPU driver install support, it's kinda 'easy-to-use OS'.

The best documentation for Linux Folding@Home centers on Ubuntu, which I recommend. You can use file system Ext4 with Ubuntu 12.04LTS, which is default. Here is the best guide available for setting up Linux Folding - http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1601608. The authors of that guide no longer support FAH, but their instructions are still valid and the tools developed by Tear at [H] are still rock solid.

Edit: Apologies: We have Linux setup information here as well - http://www.overclockers.com/forums/forumdisplay.php/21-Folding-Team. Sorry, when I set up Linux Folding a couple years ago, the guides here were not yet developed as they are now.

I just got Ubuntu installed on a test setup of the machine. I'm far from ready to fold with it but I have enough parts to play around and get used to it. I never did get the hang of installing software on Linux so that should be fun. I'll dig in to the links you provided and see what I can do.

You can have it up and running after running just a few terminal commands from this guide:
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/...t-do-I-need-to-know-setting-up-a-linux-folder
To make it even simpler, hit CTRL + ALT + t, to open a terminal window, and run (one command at a time):


or, run the ./fah6 command with -config flag, and you will asked questions on how you want to setup it, the only things to change are:
- your fah username
- team number
- your passkey
- choose LOW priority, instead of IDLE (low priority is actually higher than idle)

That's it - you have the client running on your cpu, gpu client is a bit harder to setup, but still no big deal.

Don't worry about entering code. Most of it you can copy and paste directly into terminal.

I recently put together a 2x GTX970 rig on Ubuntu 14.04. There are indeed a lot of Linux guides, but they tend to focus on CPU and SMP, and I just wanted to get CPU up and running. This "blind leading the blind"-post on a different teams forum I found very helpful. Apparently, it was wise to install with older cards and then swap with Maxwell.
Anyways, I have the graphical FAHControl and it is very similar to Windows when running, I have TeamViewer and everything - except ppd as they have run out of the few WUs avalilable in Core 17 for Maxwell atm

Right now, I'm getting 9411 WUs which do not show in hfm.net yet. Also, I have a second 2x970 on Ubuntu now. To me, 970 is worth 275K-295K PPD depending on WU, and excperienced difference to Windows is 10-15%.
I'm happy with that and plan do to more Linux as I really like the stability, less upgrading and also price of OS. Recommended!