Linux PC for 500$ ?

[Steve]

Here's my suggestion (and reasons):

1) CPU - AMD Athlon 2500+ - $127
2) Motherboard - Asus A7N8X-X - $85
3) RAM - OCZ400512PH Premier 512M PC3200 DDR - $128
4) Video - MSI FX5200-TD128 - $79
5) Case+PS - Antec Solution SLK2650BQE - $89

Total: $508 + applicable taxes (current prices at www.cty.ca  - a
store which I highly recommend)

1) I'd pick the Athlon because it has 512K cache versus the new
Sempron's 256K cache. 2500+ is the most economical and offers very
good performance.
2) A7N8X-X has the excellent NVidia NForce2 chipset. This motherboard
doesn't have Serial ATA or Firewire though... if you need/want those,
select the Deluxe variant of this board (for more money).
3) OCZ RAM is very solid and has good performance.
4) NVidia chipset video card... this is the lowest of the line but
offers excellent performance for most circumstances.
5) Antec cases and power supplies are very high quality, and this one
is supposed to be very quiet too.

Of course this system will not be acceptable for real 3D gaming. You'd
need to at least double your budget for that.

This is almost identical to my current system that I've had for about
a year of heavy use. I have a different model of OCZ RAM and a
different Antec case. I would also not consider a dual-channel memory
board for AMD CPU's as I've talked to people and read reviews that the
performance gain from dual-channel on AMD's is almost imperceptible.

HTH... let us know what you pick!

-Steve.
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