[olug] Advice on a new rig

[T. J. Brumfield]

>Are you considering using SLI or Crossfire for your GPU?

Probably not.  If I can, I'll spend a few extra bucks for
SLI/Crossfire ready mobo and power supply.  My last mobo was SLI ready
just in case I wanted to add a second GPU later, but because my power
supply wasn't ready, I never added a second GPU.  It might increase
the life-span of the computer if I went that route, but I won't be
going SLI/Crossfire right away.  More than likely, I won't have the
cash for it.

>Processors

The top-end Intel procs are better than top-end AMD procs, but at the
low end I keep finding better bang-for-the-buck with AMD.  When I
built my last rig, all the comparable AMD motherboards were $30
cheaper than Intel ones, and the cheapest dual-core Intel offering was
$150 for a proc, and AMD had a dual-core proc for $35, yet benchmarks
showed the two procs were similar in performance.  And the new Phenom
II X4 line is supposed to stand toe-to-toe with anything Intel is
putting out next quarter.  However, I don't know how expensive they'll
be.   Both AMD and Intel contribute to Linux, but Intel has been found
guilty of anti-trust violations so I also like to go with the
less-evil company and support choice.

>GPUs

This I will wait until the last second on.  No need to buy a GPU early
since they depreciate so quickly.

>How much did you want to spend on this system.

Good question.  How much will my tax refund be?  It's hard to say
right now.  I'm either going to get 4 1TB or 4 1.5TB drives and drop
$400-$600 right there.  So I don't want to go hog wild with the rest
of the components.

>I do not yet see a need for upgrading, myself.

I like to be able to play high-end games (though I never have the time
to do so) and I want the PC to serve as a media server.  I plan to rip
my entire DVD collection to my HDD and get rid of my discs.  I don't
want to shove 4 HDDs in my current case/power supply set-up.  My
brother has offered to buy my current rig, so I'm just going to build
new from the ground up.  I may end up going cheap on CPU/GPU and forgo
a monster gaming rig if I can't really afford one, and if there isn't
any decent Linux support for the new AM3 mobos/chipsets and newer
GPUs.  Someone commenting to me privately that this thread maybe
off-topic, but I'm posting here because Linux support is a major
requisite in selecting hardware here.  However, conversely to the
suggestion of going PPC, that would kill gaming capabilities.

>So on the KDE/Linux side, memory use would appear to actually be decreasing over time.

I've never remotely touched my 4 gigs in Linux, but I do all my gaming
in the Windows side.  Wine gets better every year, and eventually I
may ditch the dual-boot.  I don't need every game to run, but I prefer
RPGs like Oblivion and Wine/Cedega seems to focus first and foremost
on getting FPS games to work.  If I can play the big RPGs in Linux,
I'd be happy and ditch Windows.  Either way, gaming is when I usually
tax my memory the most, such as Oblivion on high settings.  I imagine
new games might push that.  Am I better with super-fast memory, or
having more memory?  Is 8 gigs really needed?  I'm not sure.

Thanks for all your suggestions so far!

-- T. J.