Building a new computer--Need a look-over

[boaty]

Hey everyone, I'm looking into building my own computer. I was wondering if you tech guys could look into this and see if there are any major problems I need to fix. I'm going to run Ubuntu 10.04 64bit. Are there any compatibility issues of which I should be aware?

Processor & Ram: 550$
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6254717&CatId=1946

Motherboard: 200$
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6089047&CatId=4296
http://us.msi.com/index.php?func=proddesc&maincat_no=1&cat2_no=171&cat3_no=&prod_no=1986

Hard Drive: 80$
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5589521&CatId=139

Graphics Card: 200$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102878

PSU: 100$
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3438609&CatId=5433

Case: 55$
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4950639&csid=ITD&body=MAIN#detailspecs

CD Drive: 20$
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5744256&CatId=4509

Monitor: 140$
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5501889&Sku=S445-723003

Total Cost : 1345$

Thanks in advance

[uOpt]

Most of these AMD chipset board have some piece of trash realtek ethernet chip on board. I'd avoid that.

Are you sure you have a workload for 6 cores?

I don't like the PSU. Get a real vendor PSU.

$130 for a video card and $160 for a monitor? Do you game a lot?

[madverb]

Should be fine.

[boaty]

Yeah, I would like to have a better graphics card, but due to cost restrictions, I'll have to settle for this for now. The monitor is the best for the cost :D

Also, I don't see anything about realtek on that motherboard.

Does one of these seem like a better PSU? I'm not quite sure what you mean about 'vendor'.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3276567&Sku=ULT-LSP750
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2776974&Sku=O261-2006

[uOpt]

Yeah, I would like to have a better graphics card, but due to cost restrictions, I'll have to settle for this for now. The monitor is the best for the cost :D


I meant the other way round. Unless you are a gamer you need a $20 card.



Also, I don't see anything about realtek on that motherboard.


You'll have to find out. The realtek stuff is really bad. Either newegg or in the motherboard manual.



Does this seem like a better PSU? I'm not quite sure what you mean about 'vendor'.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3276567&Sku=ULT-LSP750

No.

[sites]

Get a psu with the "80 Plus" rating on it. That stamp alone is just-as if not more important than the brand.

[Phrea]

Most of these AMD chipset board have some piece of trash realtek ethernet chip on board. I'd avoid that.

Never had any problems with Realtek NIC's, either onboard or seperate PCI cards.

[boaty]

Here's this one I found:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4362114&CatId=4294

80+ Rating. Is 600 Watts going to be enough? Also, will this be compatible with my motherboard's form factor ATX (the PSU page doesn't state ATX on it...)?

[Phrea]

Here's this one I found:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4362114&CatId=4294

80+ Rating. Is 600 Watts going to be enough? Also, will this be compatible with my motherboard's form factor ATX (the PSU page doesn't state ATX on it...)?

It's enough, but only just, considering both cpu and gpu.
I'd go a bit higher, 800W for instance.

Yes, it is ATX.

[boaty]

Okay, thanks, I'll check out 800W (especially, since I plan to upgrade by graphics card sometime in the future). How can I tell that it's ATX (so I don't have to ask anyone else again :P)?

[Phrea]

You can recognize it from the power supply connector [20+4 for this one] to the main board.

[madverb]

I think 800W is very much overkill, unless you are planning on installing a second video card and a few more HDDs.

[cascade9]

Personally, I'd rather have the gigabyte 890FX-

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6078269&CatId=4296

As for a power supply, I'm a sucker for coarsair and seasonic. I'd love one of these (amazing power supplies)-

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151088

But since that is a little pricy, maybe this would be better-

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005

BTW, pretty much everything you will see is ATX. AT power supplies were going out in teh late 90s, and its pretty hard to find them now. For a nice page with pics of all the (x86) connectors,see here-

http://www.playtool.com/pages/psuconnectors/connectors.html


Never had any problems with Realtek NIC's, either onboard or seperate PCI cards.

I have, once. I *think* it was a 8139, and the version of debian I was using at the time wouldnt detect it. That was the only issue I've ever had though.


I think 800W is very much overkill, unless you are planning on installing a second video card and a few more HDDs.

+1. People vastly overestimate the power needed. Then again, the new GTX4XX nVidia cards are very power hungry (I've never really crunched the numbers for a GTX4XX, as from everything I've seen I would never buy one).

Worth a look-

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cases/display/system-wattage.html

For the lazy- an i7 + GTX295 (dual GPU, eats a lot of power) 500 watts max draw.

[uOpt]

Okay, thanks, I'll check out 800W (especially, since I plan to upgrade by graphics card sometime in the future). How can I tell that it's ATX (so I don't have to ask anyone else again :P)?

The watts mean nothing without manufacturer, brand and model.

For this machine you only need 500 Watts or so, but a piece of junk 800 Watts will not deliver 500 Watts permanently.

I'd get a Seventeam V-Force 600 watts or so.

[uOpt]

Never had any problems with Realtek NIC's, either onboard or seperate PCI cards.

If they are old enough that's fine. But that's a brand new board with possibly some new gizmoed up chip.

The one I just got on an Asus AMD AM3 board wasn't recognized by some Linux kernels I tried (includeing 2.6.31.6) and worked flakey on the one that did recognize it. It also doesn't do in FreeBSD-8.x.

Although it will possibly work fine with a current Ubuntu, why would you narrow down your choices.

I now use an Ethernet card on that board.

[djinnkeeper]

I love when people pretend that Realtek somehow isn't good enough for the average user.. or for just about anyone for that matter; it's not 1998 anymore. :P

It's tough to give perfect advice without knowing more about the user, but I am gonna go out on a limb and say a few things may be overkill.

Since the processor is so new, it is way too expensive. It'll be a cool novelty for a while, but it will be difficult to benefit from those extra 2-4 cores.. save a buttload of money by getting something that wasn't released last month (or late the month before, what ev). If the Athlon line seems too weak for your taste (it isn't, but marketing is hard to ignore) I'm pretty sure a quad-core Phenom will suit the needs of most.

Unless you're planning on jamming a crapload of interface/controller cards + doing some Crossfire, I'd say the motherboard is a waste of money. There are perfectly decent boards out there for around (if not slightly under) $100.. anyone who says otherwise is clearly a villain. :mad:

The PSU rubs me the wrong way. I don't want to just come right out and say it blows, because I've never tried it.. but just personally, I don't trust any PSU that sports its own LEDs, color changing feature, scented mist, etc. I've only ever owned one Apevia brand PSU.. it was fine, but a PSU should just be a PSU.. anything extra is suspicious and uncivilized. If you want/need a specific wattage, make sure it says "Continuous" somewhere in the product's name. The person who mentioned Seasonic gets a gold star. :KS Antec is also okay but obviously, (you already seem to know to) steer clear of anything with modular connectors. PC Power & Cooling tends to make a reliable PSU.. I forget who owns em now.

Other than that, purely as a matter of preference, I hate the monitor. For me, with today's meager selection of flat-panel solutions, it's less about response time and more about viewing angle. If you hate bad viewing angles and don't mind a less than perfect refresh rate/response time, shop for an IPS (in plane switching) type panel, rather than a TN (twisted nematic) panel.. If you spend less on the processor and motherboard, you should have extra to lean in to a better monitor.

http://www.pchardwarehelp.com/guides/s-ips-lcd-list.php <- this link is a great reference for IPS type panels.

Everything else is fine as it can be. I hate PNY but it's completely unrelated to their video cards.

Good luck with your build, boaty.

[boaty]

@Cascade, why would you prefer that board over the one I had listed? The price difference is nice; is there anything else about it?

[Phrea]

The watts mean nothing without manufacturer, brand and model.

For this machine you only need 500 Watts or so, but a piece of junk 800 Watts will not deliver 500 Watts permanently.

I'd get a Seventeam V-Force 600 watts or so.

First part is very very true, I only use Tagan myself.

For the 600/800W discussion, you guys are partly right I think, but that vidcard does need a lot of juice, and if he wants to upgrade at some point, it will be nice to have a psu that's already up to par.
Good psu's will last a long time, so you don't have to upgrade them every time you upgrade [parts of] your hardware, like mabo's, cpu's, gpu's, etc.
Second part why I 'overkill' psu's is pure stability, maxing them out, or even getting anywhere near maxing them out will put a strain on performance and stability.

@uOpt, I think you just had some bad luck with that NIC, don't read too much in to it.

[Penguin Guy]

I made one a while ago, you can find the post here (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1112237) - hope it helps.

[boaty]

Thanks for the advice everyone, and that post did help me out :D

I'm currently going to look into a PSU which seems to fit everything you guys are suggesting as well as a motherboard which will be more appropriate.

[uOpt]

@uOpt, I think you just had some bad luck with that NIC, don't read too much in to it.

Realtek ethernet has always been considered trash in the Linux and BSD communities. Even if they work they have bad performance to do doing too much work at interrupt time.

The drivers you can download from realtek.com, why don't you try applying them to a recent kernel? That's when you get a taste of it.

There is no reason for the OP to repeat my mistake and not pick a board that costs the same and had a better Ethernet chip.

I'm disappointed that the OP doesn't answer important points such as whether there is an actual workload that would utilize a 6-core processor, though, and I bet he's too lazy to look up the Ethernet chip on the board in question anyway.

[boaty]

Calm down, Sparky. I'm doing the best I can, reading many peoples' posts and trying to find something which works. First timer here, remember?

Anyways, 6-core processor is just for fun. I don't care. It's just for fun. I might change my mind, but that's inconsequential.

About the Realtek, is that the audio chipset? That's the only place I've seen it in any of the motherboard pages. However, you mention it being ethernet, which all of the boards I've seen don't even mention. I'm looking this stuff up the best I can; sorry, but it's my first time.

If maybe you helped me figure out how to check that, I would.

[boaty]

Oops...Sorry about the sextuple posting...had a little problem with ubuntuforums for a minute.

[boaty]

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[boaty]

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[boaty]

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[boaty]

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[uOpt]

About the Realtek, is that the audio chipset? That's the only place I've seen it in any of the motherboard pages. However, you mention it being ethernet, which all of the boards I've seen don't even mention. I'm looking this stuff up the best I can; sorry, but it's my first time.

If maybe you helped me figure out how to check that, I would.

Realtek audio chips are fine, pretty good actually. Realtek Ethernet usually is not.

The newegg description of the motherboard sometimes gives the specific Ethernet chip. Failing that you need to download the user's manual for the specific mainboard.

[boaty]

Okay, thank you. I'll check that out. I should be able to find it on google, right? :D

So, I've updated my original post with the new parts I've found. The only differences are the motherboard, whose ethernet chip I'm going to try to find now, and the PSU, which is now a corsair (so I know it's good quality) 750W (which should be enough for now and a possible upgrade in the futre) non-modular (so I shouldn't have any little degradation where modular PSUs might).

How's it looking now?

Edit:
I've downloaded the ASUS M4A78T-E manual, but it doesn't have anything pertaining to ethernet chips. I shall continue to google various, related phrases, but if anyone else has a better idea (or an answer), it will be welcomed.

Edit 2:
Currently at ASUS' website, unfortunately must be off. Shall report back later. Until then, fine folks.

Edit 3:
One last edit before I leave, is this that ethernet chip?
LAN Atheros® L1E Gigabit LAN controller featuring AI NET 2
http://usa.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=cf8IZzbU4m6GHKnW&templete=2

Edit 4:
From the newegg site:
Onboard LAN
LAN Chipset Atheros L1E
Max LAN Speed 10/100/1000Mbps
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131366&cm_re=ASUS_M4A78T-E-_-13-131-366-_-Product

It looks good, yeah?

[madverb]

First part is very very true, I only use Tagan myself.

For the 600/800W discussion, you guys are partly right I think, but that vidcard does need a lot of juice, and if he wants to upgrade at some point, it will be nice to have a psu that's already up to par.
Good psu's will last a long time, so you don't have to upgrade them every time you upgrade [parts of] your hardware, like mabo's, cpu's, gpu's, etc.
Second part why I 'overkill' psu's is pure stability, maxing them out, or even getting anywhere near maxing them out will put a strain on performance and stability.

@uOpt, I think you just had some bad luck with that NIC, don't read too much in to it.

It won't hurt to purchase a more powerful PSU. Good quality is definitely what you are after. As for lasting a long time... PSU's are the most common part of a PC to fail.
Maxing out a PSU is just as bad as it running at a low usage. I've heard they perform best when running at around 50% capacity the majority of the time.

@uOpt, stop with the weird propaganda about Realtek network chips. I would guess that a large majority of Ubuntu installs will be using Realtek chips. I have never heard of the *nix community really complaining much about it.

[Phrea]

PSU's are the most common part of a PC to fail.

I have the exact opposite experience.

[cascade9]

@Cascade, why would you prefer that board over the one I had listed? The price difference is nice; is there anything else about it?

Various reasons, starting my own personal bias- I'm not fond of MSI. I own one now (not the 1st MSI I've used either), and its been a pain in the butt.

The MSI also comes with (cussing removed in case of children, mods, or other easily offened people) a Jmicron SATA controller, which is nearly useless.

The newer AMD/ATI gigabyte boards I've seen have all been very good, and while I havent seen the 890FXA yet, the 790FX gigabytes were very nice- good, heavy boards. I cant see any reason to pay extra for the MSI, even if it does have 2 Oz of copper like the gigabytes (which I dont think it has).


I love when people pretend that Realtek somehow isn't good enough for the average user.. or for just about anyone for that matter; it's not 1998 anymore. :P

It's tough to give perfect advice without knowing more about the user, but I am gonna go out on a limb and say a few things may be overkill.

There is no 'perfect' advice IMO. Good, bad and indifferent advice, yes, but perfection is impossible.



Since the processor is so new, it is way too expensive. It'll be a cool novelty for a while, but it will be difficult to benefit from those extra 2-4 cores.. save a buttload of money by getting something that wasn't released last month (or late the month before, what ev). If the Athlon line seems too weak for your taste (it isn't, but marketing is hard to ignore) I'm pretty sure a quad-core Phenom will suit the needs of most.

The Phenom IIs have got a nice edge on the Athlon IIs for some tasks. That extra 6MB of L3 cache can help.

I wouldnt say that the X6s are that expensive, but they arent as cheap as the Athlon IIs, by a long shot.

@ boaty- you could always get a 770 with a SB7XX southbridge, they tend to have 'ACC' that lets you 'unlock' cores. I've just been playing with my housemates new machine, a gigabyte AM3 770 board (GA-770T-USB3) with a dualcore phenom II, and it unlocks it to a quad core. This board-

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3320#ov

BTW, yes, another realtech network chip, suprise, suprise, works perfectly. ;)

No way to know for sure that the locked core arent faulty without testing, but I'd be suprised if any of the dual-core phenom IIs had 2 bad locked cores. You should be able to go to at least X3 for a X2 price.


Unless you're planning on jamming a crapload of interface/controller cards + doing some Crossfire, I'd say the motherboard is a waste of money. There are perfectly decent boards out there for around (if not slightly under) $100.. anyone who says otherwise is clearly a villain. :mad:

Point, the majority of people really wont need a FX/FXA chipset.

Quick rundown for those who dont spend an excessive amount of time playing with hardware (only covering the chipsets without intergrated video hardware)-

7XX- the older AM2/AM2+ chipsets. They have been rejigged to go with AM3 (using DDR3) but they always come with SB600/SB7XX southbridge chipsets.

8XX- the new 'made for AM3' chispets. The same northbridge as the 7XX chipsets, but using the newer SB8XX southbridge (for native SATA III support).

770- 1x PCIe x16 slot.
790X - 1x PCIe x16 slot 1 x8 slot (physically a x16 slot, but only has x8 bandwidth avaible if the 1st x16 slot is in use).
790FX- 2 (or more) PCIe x16 slots.

8XX- 870, 890X and 890FX- same as above.


The PSU rubs me the wrong way. I don't want to just come right out and say it blows, because I've never tried it.. but just personally, I don't trust any PSU that sports its own LEDs, color changing feature, scented mist, etc. I've only ever owned one Apevia brand PSU.. it was fine, but a PSU should just be a PSU.. anything extra is suspicious and uncivilized. If you want/need a specific wattage, make sure it says "Continuous" somewhere in the product's name. The person who mentioned Seasonic gets a gold star. :KS Antec is also okay but obviously, (you already seem to know to) steer clear of anything with modular connectors. PC Power & Cooling tends to make a reliable PSU.. I forget who owns em now.

'scented mist', LMAO. If you were just making that up, here a laugh for you-


A decent carry case and the strange oil burner (which fits onto the rear heatsink) are bundled free until 1 February 2004, making the DiGiDice great value if you need to pack lots of hardware into a small space.

Read more: Abit DiGiDice AB-2003 | Desktop PCs | Reviews | PC Pro (http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/desktops/51685/abit-digidice-ab-2003#ixzz0q35DYz1P) http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/desktops/51685/abit-digidice-ab-2003#ixzz0q35DYz1P

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/desktops/51685/abit-digidice-ab-2003

Agreed on PC Power And Cooling, but unless they have changed prices a massive amount, they are wayyyy to pricey. I havent seen one in years, there isnt a local any local distribrution here.

BTW, why steer clear of modular power supplies? I've run a few, setup a lot, and in the year+ I've been using them, as yet no problems. They were all corsair or seasonic though....


It won't hurt to purchase a more powerful PSU. Good quality is definitely what you are after. As for lasting a long time... PSU's are the most common part of a PC to fail.
Maxing out a PSU is just as bad as it running at a low usage. I've heard they perform best when running at around 50% capacity the majority of the time..

I havent had a huge number of power supplies fail but when they do there is a huge chance of something else blowing at the same time. What is worse is when you get a power supply that seems fine, but once its under load, the voltages go all wrong, I've had more than a few of them over the years.


@uOpt, stop with the weird propaganda about Realtek network chips. I would guess that a large majority of Ubuntu installs will be using Realtek chips. I have never heard of the *nix community really complaining much about it.

+1.

@ boaty- dont bother with the Asus M4A78T-E. Not a bad board, but its got onboard video, whcih you dont need seeing how you are getting a video card. I've seen a post here about how horrible the sound was on that baord as well, but if that is from the VIA sound chip, or the asus 'noise cancelling' technology, I dont know.

If you do get a motherboard with onboard video, go for a 8XX chipset- SATAIII support if a good thing ;)

[boaty]

Thanks for all of the info; you all have been very helpful.

Cascade, you tell me not to bother with the Asus. Is that because there is a board more fitting to my computer or because this board isn't that great? Do you strongly suggest a 8XX northbridge and a SB8XX southbridge? What is the importance of having that? Is SATAIII support something that is strongly advised (and must a board have an SB8XX southbridge to do that?). Also, how can a mobo not have onboard video? All of the boards I've seen have had a video chipset of some kind.

Sorry for all of these questions; I know it's a ton. At the moment I'm comparing mobos on tigerdirect and googling a fair deal of the specs.

Thanks again

[cascade9]

Cascade, you tell me not to bother with the Asus. Is that because there is a board more fitting to my computer or because this board isn't that great?

Well, aside from my dislike of intergrated video, there are a few things. Stating with this-


Crap sound.

Seriously crap

Way under volume even if you overdrive it & the sound is like you have the treble turned down to minus 5 (if you could)http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1473520

Posted on a thread about a new system with the asus M4A87TD Evo (which is a slightyl different board, but uses the same VIA VT 1708S sound chip, and has the same asus 'noise filter'.

You can get boards with the same features but with a realtech chip that sounds at least OK for less (and some of them have USB 3.0 suport as well, and that is also nice).



Do you strongly suggest a 8XX northbridge and a SB8XX southbridge? What is the importance of having that? Is SATAIII support something that is strongly advised (and must a board have an SB8XX southbridge to do that?).

To cut a long story short, the northbridge is connected to the CPU and PCIe slots, and the southbridge is what runs all the other stuff (PCI slots, IDE ports, SATA ports, USB ports, etc).

The northbridge doesnt really matter that much (though there is the chance that future AMD CPUs might work on the 8XX northbridge but not 7XX). The 8XX southbridges have SATA III support (and USB 3.0, but I'm yet to see a motherboard that has 'native' USB 3.0, its all been done via NEC USB 3.0 chips).

I wouldnt go as far as 'stongly advised' for the 8XX northbridge/southbridge. Its worth considering though. BTW, watch out, there are plently of motherboards with a 8XX northbridge but using a SB7XX southbridge. ;)

*edit- you can have SATA III support without a SB8XX southbridge, but then its from extra add-on RAID chips...most of which are troublesome underlinux,a dn not that great even with windows.


Also, how can a mobo not have onboard video? All of the boards I've seen have had a video chipset of some kind.

Heh, I'mold enough to remember buying 'vanilla' motherboards (no sound, video or networking onboard). While the network and sound is on everythign these days, boards with no onboard video are still around.

Its easier to build a motherboard without onboard video....which is one reason why its a waste to get onbaord if you are planning on using a video card. (the extra complexity just adds to the cost of design and manufacture).

The 890FX you originally linked to has no board video, and the 790FX/790X/770/890X/870 chipsets also have no option for onboard video.

[Drenriza]

you can probably get an
Phenom II X6 1055T 6 MB (AMD Processor in a Box (PIB))

OCZ Gold 4 x 2 GB ddr3

for around/cheaper 536,39 US instead of what you have selected which is ddr2

that is what i can get it for here. And we pay overprice for all hardware so over beloved government can earn +25% on all merchandise.

I dont know the rules in the US. But its worth looking in to.
And that would save you quite alot, alone.

[boaty]

Well, thanks for the information. It's always nice adding some knowledge to the brain. At this point, I would like the SB8XX and (you even mentioned it) the USB 3.0 which is something I was contemplating before.

I think this is something I'm going to be debating until I get to the point where I actually buy the parts.

Thanks. If anyone has any more information that is probably important, I'm all ears.

[Drenriza]

What does your build look like now?

Has any parts changed since post #1? and which parts?

[boaty]

As of now, page one, my initial post, has the latest information with my build. Except for the GPU :P I'm still working on that; I'm looking up a plethora of information.

[uOpt]

As of now, page one, my initial post, has the latest information with my build. Except for the GPU :P I'm still working on that; I'm looking up a plethora of information.

Looks pretty nice, if you have the money to spare.

I still think the monitor might be short of expectations. I wouldn't be brave enough to get one of those ultra-cheap 22 inchers. And it does not have DVI input, that will be an issue with most graphics cards.

[boaty]

I'm not going for DVI. I need HDMI for my computer and xbox. Besides, that monitor has a list price of 210$. I don't see anything wrong with it. The reviews are great. The one slightly problematic thing might be the tilt angle, but I can always search for a different monitor if I feel it is necessary.

Edit:

Thanks for mentioning the monitor. The more I thought about it (and reviewed the specs), I realized, although this monitor has a great price and nice specs, the style (ring stand) wasn't for me. I would greatly prefer something flat. So I found what's now on my first post. It's refurbished, so I'm really skeptical, but the size is exactly what I wanted as well as the style (regular stand). The reviews seem to go in favor of it. People mention a dead pixel here or there, but most don't. It has a warranty, so I don't think I'll be too screwed over.

Edit 2:

I just sent in the order for the rest of my parts (excluding the GPU)! I want to thank all of you guys for your help. Your minds have been invaluable, and as long as I use my new build, I shall always remember the kindness of those on Ubuntu forums :D. Okay, I'm done gushing, I promise. I'm just happy :D

[djinnkeeper]

Most dead pixel clauses require a certain (often pretty high) number of dead pixels, before they'll accept a return. (sometimes like 8+) I agree with the notion of spending less money on a motherboard & cpu combo, to free up cash toward a better monitor. It's sort of gut wrenching spending such a seemingly disproportionate amount on the monitor, but it's the one piece you have to stare at.

In my limited experience (3 of em; two different brands of 23" and one 24"), the $200-range, 1980 x 1080, TN panels are garbage for anything but gaming in a very dark room.. and even then you still have to remain perfectly still to avoid noticing crazy color shifting / backlight bleed / etc. Break down and spend way too much on a nice NEC with a good viewing angle.

..and to hell with 2ms response times.. if refresh rates are mission-critical, stick with a trusty CRT that you can have calibrated every couple of years. ;)

You'll be effin relieved to have it all put together, that's for sure. Now on to the GPU.

Out of curiosity, did you manage to buy everything else from one vendor, or were you forced to shop around for everything?

[boaty]

Okay, so are you saying the Gateway monitor is a bad idea? Or that the Asus is a bad idea? I keep updating my first post with my newest finds, so I'm not always certain which one people are talking about.

Everything so far, I've bought from TigerDirect. From what I've seen, they have the best prices anywhere, and no one has complained about the quality.

The GPU I probably won't buy from TD. This is what I have found so far:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102878

I've heard good things about the Sapphire brand. I actually made a post on UbuntuForums trying to find out if this would work. I also had a couple other questions which I put here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1508114

Thanks for any info.

[Cathhsmom]

I really like how the MSI motherboards are laid out with lots of room, but I had a problem with the compatibility of the Geoforce 9600 graphics card (tried several of them of different brands) and motherboard. So, I changed to a ASUS motherboard and no problem. So the verdict is still out as to whether it is a one time fluke with a bad motherboard or this motherboard brand is not to be trusted. I want to believe the first.