I am a complete beginner in any Linux operating system and I was planning to give it a try due to recommendations from family and friends. I found a great chance to do that with the new computer I was going to build soon, but I have never dual booted, nor have I used Linux before; used to only use windows. I was planning on my main system being Ubuntu, where I do all of my programming (college student learning comp sci) and to just try out Linux. However, I enjoy playing pc games quite a bit and that is mainly what I use windows for. I was reading a few guides online, but I couldn't find any that described the partitioning and the procedure for installing both Windows 7 (so far, windows 8 just annoys me) and Ubuntu and how I should partition my drive.

I have not built my computer yet, but I think I have my parts planned out already.
CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory

Storage: Western Digital Caviar TBlue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive

Video Card: Radeon HD 7870 2GB Video Card

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Full (64-bit) && Ubuntu - dual boot


Most of these parts are not completely set yet, a lot of them may change a bit, but that is the basic specs of what my computer is going to be like. If there are any suggestions for the parts, feel free to tell me as well. I am probably going to start ordering the parts and this stuff in about a week.

Thank you for your help!