As much as I'm loathe to admit it, my Pentium D system is finally showing its age.

Which means I get to muddle my way through designing and building a new system. Oh boy.

I'm not much of a hardware guy, and I realize some of you are. Which means I'm asking you all if you have any sort of brilliant suggestions.

I primarily use my system as a GNU/Linux desktop for general computing purposes. On occasion I will do some RAW photo editing and gaming. However, this is by no means designed to be hard-core gaming system. This is meant to be a speedy all-around system that has the capability to expand as future needs demand of it: mostly more ram and hard disk space.

I envision my hard disk partitioning/use scheme to look something like this:

* 2TB Storage Drive for photos. I currently have around ~500GB of photos, but this will let me expand for a few years. Doesn't need to be particularly fast, as it is mainly deep storage. This will be in NTFS format since I will primarily use this with Windows 7.

* 2TB /home drive for Linux. I have a lot of assorted files to archive and sort as well as a few hundred CDs that have been ripped to FLAC format. ext3

* 320GB / drive for Linux: I have a 7200RPM drive from a few years ago that is serving pretty capability as my current root drive. Average read speed is around 60MB/s. I'm willing to look into other options for this drive if you think I would be better served with a faster boot and root drive for Linux. ext4

* 320GB drive for Windows 7: Identical drive to the 320GB above. Am also wiling to entertain other suggestions. I'm considering getting a 72GB Raptor for my Windows 7 main drive, and using this 320GB for game storage and temporary photo space. NTFS

* A 1.5TB USB drive will serve as a backup for photos, and selected /home directories. Another USB drive will act as a music backup (can be much smaller because I have the original CDs). NTFS.


A copy of the current build I'm looking at is here:

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=14132045

You'll notice I have two PSUs, and I don't have a clue what people get for wattage these days.

Just to encourage you all, If you make a suggestion that either a) significantly increases performance without (too much of) an added price, b) significantly saves me money without decreasing performance, or c) is really amazingly brilliant, I'll get you a gift card or something.

1) You've got 2 power supplies listed. I would actually step up a bit to something like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139013 ($120 AR)

2) Your RAM won't work with your CPU/Mobo combo. You have two choices here. Either get a triple channel RAM kit, or drop down to the cheaper LGA 1156 socket. Something likes this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131599 + this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115067

3) 6850 is faster than the 460 and cheaper to boot (and uses 65w less power under load): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125348&cm_re=6850-_-14-125-348-_-Product

4) If you aren't buying an aftermarket HSF, then Arctic Silver 5 is essentially useless.

Oh, and a ~70gb raptor drive would be a waste. You'll never see the difference (now, an SSD on the other hand...)

He did however say he planed on running Linux and the nvidia driver is much better than catalyst there and it will be a while before the FOSS ATI driver supports the 6850.

Hurr durr. I probably should have checked the motherboard channels. I added the RAM+Motherboard, then decided to switch things around and forgot to check that the RAM still worked with it.

Changed that memory issue accordingly, added the other PSU, and switched the video card up a bit. TheStrom is correct though, I'm not a fan of ATI.

Don't get me wrong even with catalyst not being quite as good as nvidia I would still get the ATI card myself.

My only comment other than the opinions already provided is that I think that's quite a decent price for a 27" monitor of those dimensions and specifications.

That was true like 2 years ago. Now they are very close. Nvidia's drivers under Linux are probably still a bit better/faster, but without any games to stress the card who cares? Compiz isn't exactly demanding.

Although yeah, the 68xx not having Linux drivers yet is kind of a deal breaker there.

@allynfolksjr: You definitely want at least the 1GB model of the GTX 460 though. It isn't just a VRAM difference, there are actual spec differences too. Also, it doesn't really matter if it's factory overclocked or not, you can OC the crap out of it yourself (which I recommend - the 460 has some pretty impressive gains from overclocking). Check out this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814162055 ($180 AR)



Only if you think it's impressive to have pixels the size of your face...

I wouldn't get or recommend that monitor. 1920x1200 27"? No thanks. 27" TN? No thanks. 1920x1200 + TN at 27" for the same cost as a U2311h? Bwhahaha, absolutely not.

But it's big and shiny so I didn't comment on it.

I didn't know they made a 23" 1080 ultrasharp. Interesting! I'm actually replacing twin 20" wide ultrasharps, so this might be what I'll get instead.

Build complete. I went with Dell U2410 monitors. Thanks for the help everyone!

Great to hear! I hope you'll be sharing some pictures of your build with us when you get a chance.

Those look like some nice monitors if only I had $800 to burn I'd get 2 as well.

They are 600 each...

I like mine, I've got 3 of them

So they are, I must have been looking at a different monitor when I got that price of $400 each. Personally I'd rather have something a bit smaller, 24" is larger than I want in a monitor.

24" monitors for $600? It seems to me that most 24" monitors can be acquired for not more than $250 or $300 on NewEgg; do these monitors have some particular advantage or feature that's not immediately apparent to me?

Yes, one that I've talked about before. Most LCDs use TN panels. TN panels are ugly, aren't actually 8-bit, have terrible viewing angles, etc... They are cheap, and look every bit of it. Good LCD monitors use IPS or *VA panels. They have excellent colors, excellent viewing angles, are actually 8 bit (or 10 bit), etc... They are quality panels, and cost it.

The U2410 has an IPS panel. A $300 24" monitor doesn't have an IPS panel.

You've probably seen *VA panels before - they are very common in TVs. Compare the viewing angles on an LCD TV to that of your monitor and it should be very obvious. To see why this matters, check out this page: http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/viewing_angle.php Even if you look at it head on it will probably be pretty terrible. On an IPS panel it is uniform from top to bottom.

TN panels do have 2 advantages - they are the fastest of the various types and the are the cheapest.

Hmmm, a good point, although when it gets right down to replacing my monitors next, I might end up going for the cheaper inferior choice, since little of my work depends on getting all eight bits of each of my color channels exactly right. I can see where as photographers, someone like nikky or comicIDIOT might have a need for truer LCDs.

I happen to like the viewing angles most. You can do crazy things like rotate IPS to portrait and not want to stab yourself in the eyes. Seriously, take one of your monitors and hold it sideways so it's in portrait mode. It looks so incredibly bad even head on, and if you shift the tiniest bit to the side it becomes even more of a mess.

Check this out: http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/dell_u2410.htm Scroll down to the viewing angles section to see how an IPS looks from far off axis. Compare that to a TN from slightly off axis.

I have to say even my 2 old E series Dell monitors I use now look much better than many of the new cheap LCD's I've seen in stores. They are still TN panels but I'd say Dell monitors in general just seem to be well built.

Kllrnohj, I see your point, but I still think that wouldn't be a dealbreaker for me. If I can live with it in my tablet PC, which I do indeed need to turn sideways, I can probably live with it in my desktop.