[olug] Advice on a new rig

[T. J. Brumfield]

This is a bit premature except I might look for a few Black Friday
deals on a few parts now.  I'm looking to build a new rig in the
spring.  I want to put 4 HDDs (1.5 TB drives if they can fix firmware
by then) in the rig to store media on it.  It will be a dual-boot rig
for gaming, but my wife quit her job to go back to school (free grad
school at Creighton) and with recent events I'm pretty broke.  So I'm
looking for best bang for my buck.  Linux compatibility is obviously a
must.  I'd don't have the cash for anything too high-end, but I'd like
something "gaming capable" that can also serve as a media server.  For
example, currently I'm running an X2 5400+ and a 7600 GT.

I will be selling my existing rig as-is to my brother and starting
completely new.  Two of the things I'd look at right now would be a
case and a power supply since prices on those won't drop the way CPU,
GPU, etc. prices will in a few months.  My biggest concern with a case
would be keeping 4 HDDs and my system cool without breaking the bank.
Appearance is an after-thought.  I really don't care about size.  I
really like the BTX design, but I'm not expecting to find a decent BTX
motherboard.

Power supply has to be able to handle a decent GPU, optical drive 4
HDDs and fans without breaking a sweat.  Stability and efficiency are
a plus.  Right now the price on this baby is looking pretty nice:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371015&Tpk=17-371-015

Beyond that as I look to the future I have to consider if when I buy
the rest of the rig, do I go with a new AM3 socket motherboard and
DDR3 memory.  Has anyone heard anything about upcoming AM3 socket
motherboards?  What about possible pricing on Phenom$B-6(BX4 920/925 procs?

I can likely get 8 gigs of DDR2 for less money than 4 gigs of DDR3.
More memory is USUALLY the better way to go, but I don't really ever
run out of memory with 4 gigs on my current rig.  8 gigs won't help me
if the memory is always unused.  But in the next two years will I
suddenly need more ram?  Note, I have no intention to touch Vista.  I
dual boot openSUSE 64-bit and Windows XP Pro x64.

For motherboard chipsets, I have used NForce chipsets for years with
no complaints, but I'm open to moving to a different chipset in the
future.  I need good Linux drivers (including the on-board sound to
pump out HD audio).

As for video cards, I'll likely revisit the more in the spring as
drivers evolve, and market prices change drastically in a matter of
months, but as a lifelong Nvidia guy, I'm suddenly looking at ATI
cards more seriously.  I appreciate any input you guys can offer.

-- T. J.
"In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of
people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
--Douglas Adams
"Nihilism makes me smile."
--Christopher Quick