Help me build a new PC!

[Extreme Coder]

Hi, I'm currently building a PC to one of my friends; he got the Linux dsease from me and is also a big gamer.
So he put me to the job of building something that should be as powerful as possible, but within sane limits of costs It should keep him content for 2-3 years.

So:

Processor : AMD or Intel? AFAIK both support Linux, but who does it better? And who's processors give more power for your money? And which series do I choose? (Athlon/Core Duo/etc..)

Motherboard : Should I get him something with an Intel Chipset, or something with an nVidia nForce or ATI AMD chipset? My guess is that something coming from nVidia or ATI would be more powerful, but I have no idea :/ I'd really appreciate it if you could recommend specific motherboards.

Graphics Card : nVidia or ATI?(yes I know ATI sucks for Linux, but maybe they're fine for gaming ?) Also, I've been hearing about connecting multiple nVidia cards on the same PC for better performance using SLI, or the same thing for ATI cards using CrossFire. Again, I have no idea about this one too. Should I use something with SLI/Crossfire?

Memory: How much would be good for this set-up? (I'm guessing it should be DDR2, of course )

DVD: Which brand to buy? Sony/Samsung/LG/etc..? (I can't ask for a specific model, since I doubt I'd find it here, but you can still say it if you want)

As you have probably guessed, I'm not updated with the latest tech and stuff :/

Thanks very much, and I really appreciate it!
Extreme Coder

[maniacmusician]

processor; Intel Core 2 Duo. I like the E6600.

Motherboard; Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6...if you can't afford it, then GA-965P-DS3

Graphics Card: SLI isn't really necessary. Best bang for your buck; eVGA GeForce 7600GT. If you want super duper performance, you could get something from the GeForce 8 series.

Memory: OCZ/Corsair DDR2800 would probably be the optimal choice. RAM is expensive.

DVD: Doesn't really matter. Lite-on is good, as are Sony and Samsung. you could probably get a burner.

Hard drive: SATA2 (aka SATA3.0Gb/s) is your best bet. Capacities anywhere from 320-500GB are a good value. good manufacturers are Seagate, Western Digital, and even Samsung has been doing well lately.

[Naralas]

I was trying to build a 600 dollar gaming machine recently. I hit 900 and thats without wireless and with a disappointing video card.

I would say Maniac knows what he's talking about, he helped me build my machine, and helped me fix it when it went poof

[mips]

processor; Intel Core 2 Duo. I like the E6600.

Motherboard; Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6...if you can't afford it, then GA-965P-DS3

Graphics Card: SLI isn't really necessary. Best bang for your buck; eVGA GeForce 7600GT. If you want super duper performance, you could get something from the GeForce 8 series.

Memory: OCZ/Corsair DDR2800 would probably be the optimal choice. RAM is expensive.

DVD: Doesn't really matter. Lite-on is good, as are Sony and Samsung. you could probably get a burner.

Hard drive: SATA2 (aka SATA3.0Gb/s) is your best bet. Capacities anywhere from 320-500GB are a good value. good manufacturers are Seagate, Western Digital, and even Samsung has been doing well lately.

+1 Good recommendation

Why does no one ever state their budget when they ask questions like this as it is probably the most important factor when asking for advice like this ?

[SoulinEther]

+1 Good recommendation

Why does no one ever state their budget when they ask questions like this as it is probably the most important factor when asking for advice like this ?

Well, for one, the costs of goods varies from country to country and from store to store...

A price "range" or whatever is probably sufficient. "Cheap", "Moderate", and "All-out", for example.

[rejser]

Processor : Amd is plenty bang for the buck. Look at the x2 series.

Motherboard : I use nvidia chipset, works good for everything accept running mac os x86

Graphics Card : Half a year ago I would have said nvidia 7600gt, but now once I got my ati 1950pro that costs about the same (at least where I live), really good for gaming, and works flawlessly in linux. Skip dual, costs more than it's brings power.

Memory: 2gb ddr2 800mhz

DVD: by nec, cheap and really reliable.

For me it finished on about 550 euro (5000 swedish krona)

Hey, that's my computer

[mips]

Well, for one, the costs of goods varies from country to country and from store to store...

A price "range" or whatever is probably sufficient. "Cheap", "Moderate", and "All-out", for example.

A budget still provides some baseline to work from.

In this case we might as well build him the most expensive pc out there, he should then be happy.

[Alpha_toxic]

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Athlon 64x2
Generally the conroes are faster, but are more expensive. I'd personally go for AMD 3800+ or 4200+. Those can be overclocked a lot and a nice performance/money wise.

Motherboard: If you really want THE THING get a DFI Lan Party (expensive stuff though).
for Conroe - Asus p5b. Note that there is a whole family of p5b mobos that are different and some are great while others are crap. As I recall p5b-delux was a good one. Also some of the models have some werid IDE controller that refuses to work in linux...
for AMD - I have Epox MF4 Ultra-3 (this is with nForce4, 100% linux friendly) and I'm happy with it, nice for clocking.
A intell processor + a propper mobo for those are MUCH more expensive than a AMD + a propper mobo, so again, I'd stick with AMD.
If you need WIFI I can't help. I've never looked into wifi so i have no idea what works best and what works with linux. The p5b-delux has wifi, but again, i have no idea if it works with linux.

Graphics Card: You don't need SLI, really...
maniacmusician says 7600GT and this is good. I'd go a bit further and take 7600GTS.
Explaination:
There are the GT, GS, and GTS (GT > GTS > GS)
The difference between 7600gt and 7600gs is that gt is with DDR3 and gs with DDR2 and that gt is "factory overclocked". The GTS is a GS with DDR3, so the only difference between GT and GTS is the clock of the processor and memory. The price is significantly lower and both the GT and the GTS can be overclocked to pretty much the same speed. In short - you get the same thing for less money

Memory: DDR800 with nice timings. When using AMD timings are more important than MHz!!!

The rest is not very important... Just make sure not to get the crappiest things

and btw, I'd always stick with nVidia for both chipsets and GFX cards. It is just insanelly easier to make those work in linux, generally they "just work".

[Warpnow]

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...MBM-680I-Q6600

That's a good deal on a core 2 quad.

http://www.smksuperstore.com/catalog...m.asp?ID=27793

Cheaper, by a lot, AMD X2 5600

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...u=I69-2146%20H

Good value on complete system barebone.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...=A455-2129%20I

A value barebone. Personally, I don't game. I doubt I'd spend more than $500 on a pc. I'd get a good CPU/MB for $300ish, buy a cheap *** case + psu for $50, add in 2gb a ram for about $100 and buy a 250gb HD for $50. Total would however around $500. If I needed a DVD burner they sell for about $25 on the net.

Plus, I could dial the Cpu/MB down to about $150 and build a $350 pc and it would probably do me well. Currently running a p4 3.0 ghz wit 2gbs of ram. Built it like 3 years ago for $500 and my pc does pretty much anything I try to push out of it very fast.

[Extreme Coder]

Thanks a lot for your help, I'm sorry I didn't define an exact budget; since as said before here, the price of components in your countries would vary a lot from what's here. But what's expensive there stays expensive here

A price "range" or whatever is probably sufficient. "Cheap", "Moderate", and "All-out", for example.

Hmm.. I'd say something between All-out and Moderate

processor; Intel Core 2 Duo. I like the E6600. Hmm.. I wanted to try the AMD route (I never tried AMD before) but if you say so..

Motherboard; Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6...if you can't afford it, then GA-965P-DS3 I looked up this board, and it's too expensive :/ I haven't imagined a board that would be more expensive than any other part of the PC But what's so special about this board to make it so expensive? (even from the other board you mentioned, because they look very similar to me)

Graphics Card: SLI isn't really necessary. Best bang for your buck; eVGA GeForce 7600GT. If you want super duper performance, you could get something from the GeForce 8 series. I looked up this card, it sounds pretty good (and affordable ) And I could add another one of these sometime later. But I will have to ask him if he wants something from the GeForce 8 series(even though I doubt he'd want one)

Memory: OCZ/Corsair DDR2800 would probably be the optimal choice. RAM is expensive. I hear a lot about Corsair being good for RAM, but how much should I add of it? 2 GB?

DVD: Doesn't really matter. Lite-on is good, as are Sony and Samsung. you could probably get a burner. As a matter of fact, I WAS asking for a burner. Sorry I wasn't clear :/

Hard drive: SATA2 (aka SATA3.0Gb/s) is your best bet. Capacities anywhere from 320-500GB are a good value. good manufacturers are Seagate, Western Digital, and even Samsung has been doing well lately. Thanks!

Processor : Amd is plenty bang for the buck. Look at the x2 series. You mean the Athlon 64 x2?

Motherboard : I use nvidia chipset, works good for everything accept running mac os x86 Are you talking about the nForce? And which model are you talking about?

Graphics Card : Half a year ago I would have said nvidia 7600gt, but now once I got my ati 1950pro that costs about the same (at least where I live), really good for gaming, and works flawlessly in linux. Skip dual, costs more than it's brings power. Believe me, the difference in performance between ATI on Linux and ATI on Windows using the same card is massive. While nVidia does have some difference, it's not as big as ATI's. But if something comes out of ATI's announcement of better drivers, then I'll think about it.

Memory: 2gb ddr2 800mhz Ok.

DVD: by nec, cheap and really reliable. I will see if Nec DVD burners are available here.

For me it finished on about 550 euro (5000 swedish krona)

Hey, that's my computer

Something else I want to ask is would I need a cooling system, and of what type?

Thanks a lot maniacmusician and rejser!