Have a (home-built) linux box? Let's discuss (I want to build my own)

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Jabberwocky
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Hey PF!

Short First Post Intro:
I've been a long time spectator here. I'm a junior undergrad physics major. PF has been a lot of fun, and tremendous help to me (like last winter I applied to many REU's). So thank you all!

At the REU I'm in now, I'm learning linux. I'd love to hear any of the following:

1. Your current system:
Specs? Distro? Likes? Dislikes?​

2. Dream system?
(Desktop or laptop)? Distro?​

3. Any advice for someone who's never built their own computer.

So here's me:

1. Macbook pro. Intel core duo 2.8 GHz. 4 GB ram. Dual booting Xubuntu.
Likes: Love Apple's design/hardware. Xubuntu is fast and lightweight.​
Dislikes: Apple keyboard/hardware isn't always friendly with linux.​

2. I'm unsure, but something I've built myself so I understand the system (and of course awesome tech specs)...

3. n/a

Basically I would be blowing a good portion of my REU stipend on this...
 
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My comany uses Mandriva.

The dream systems are quad or oct processor systems. Some folks told me though that some high end 512-core (processor) systems aren't too expensive, so I'll be looking at those, with a large amount of RAM and a fast bus.
 
Wow! That's a lot of horsepower. The most I could afford and put to good use would probably be an oct core system or two quad cores.

Eventually I'd like to upgrade to a cluster system, but I'm starting small.
 
Jabberwocky said:
1. Your current system:
I built a system around a Core i7-2600K, I boot Xubuntu 11.04 (configured to look like 10.04, I don't like the updated interface) off of a 160 GB SSD along with Win 7 Ultimate for Visual Studio (Kinect SDK work) and SolidWorks. Each OS has a 1 TB WD Caviar Black HDD. I have a BD-RW drive. I have a GTX570 (for games and CUDA programming) and 16 GB of DDR3 @ 1333MHz. This is in an Antec 900 case.

Jabberwocky said:
2. Dream system?
Pretty much my current system, maybe all SSD and a third monitor, plus another 16 GB or RAM.

Jabberwocky said:
3. Any advice for someone who's never built their own computer.
Don't rush it, double check all your components. Watch this video from Newegg first (all three parts):

Make sure to get an nVidia graphics card if you don't use integrated graphics, ATI's Linux drivers are horrible.
 
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