suggested hardware

[draeath]

I'm going to start building a desktop PC soon, but I've been out of the hardware game for several years now.

What would be your suggestions for hardware for a low-mid range desktop?

I'm going to get an NVIDIA card, but I don not know which. The last card I had was a geforce 2. Sound quality is important as well, but I will only be using a stereo system (don't need surround).

The machine will dual-boot into a small windows install (Mostly for Propellerheads Reason) - so a sound card with ASIO is important.

[John.Michael.Kane]

We need to know your budget.

Almost all Nvidia hardware will work with little to no issues.

Most of the new builds around here seem to be geared to Intel's conroe line. Though there have been AMD based X2 builds.

For soundcards you could have a chat with the folks of Ubuntu Studio (http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=128) they may have some good choice opinions on soundcards

It will really come down to what you want out the machine.

Personally this is what I run.
Mobo:BioStar T-Force 939
CPU: Athlon 64 3000+
GFX: Geforce 6100 Onboard GPU
RAM: 2x512 DDR 400
PSU: Silverstone SST-ST365
Case: Generic Beige Case
HD: SATA-80GB

[.t.]

I think most "standard" hardware works fine. It always has done for me, at least. Post what you're thinking of and people should be able to say "yeah, that works fine!".

[The Noble]

The budget is what the deciding factor is right now. SD-Plissken is suggesting something that would border on the low end of the scale for gaming, but would be great for everyday things. If you want to do some gaming (like Doom 3, etc) then you may want to go for a Geforce 7600 and a Core 2 Duo instead.

[chaosgeisterchen]

If you have about 800 Euros (or an similar amount of dollars) left for purchasing the computer I'd go for a

Core 2 Duo E6300 (1,86GHz)
1x1024 MB DDR2-RAM @ 1066 MHz
200 GB HDD, 7200 rpm, 8MB+ cache
GeForce 6600 or 6800 Graphics (like the idea of the 6600 more)
Sound and else onboard or a soundcard. I think that onboard sound is enough to listen to music nowadays.

I would also suggest watercooling and overclocking the C2D the hard way up to 3 GHz if you want to have pure power.

[draeath]

Not really a big gamer, as none of the newer games really appeal to me. Most of what I want is older, something a Geforce 4 on 1gb ram, 1.5ghz would handle extremely well.

As far as budget goes, I will have between 100-300 USD a month to spend. Closer to 100. I can be patient as well, as I've had no desktop for 3 years. With proper planning I can get a working system quickly and add the more expensive bits after (use integrated video first, use my USB SB-Live until I get something better, etc)

What would probably be best for me would be about 1 to 2 years behind the "mainstream" - after all, I could always build a better one later.

I prefer AMD, but I am not allergic to Intel if something from them is genuinely better. Really, the same thing goes for all the components.

Forgot to mention: a good soundcard (quality, not speaker quantity) will be very important. I listen to music a lot, yes, but I am also into creating.