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I built this as part of another thread on this forum, and it's something that I'm looking into getting. It comes in at under $400, as long as you have a monitor, keyboard, and speakers.

 

 

 

AMD Athlon X2 AMD Athlon X2 4850e 2.5GHz -- 45W

 

BIOSTAR NF520-A2 AMD Motherboard

 

OCZ 4GB (2 x 2GB) RAM

 

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 400GB HDD

 

PNY VCG86512GXWB-OC GeForce 8600 GT GPU

 

Lite-On Black DVD/CD burner w/Lightscribe

 

ATOP Red ATX Mid-Tower Case

 

Logisys 480W ATX 12V PSU

 

 

 

Comes in at about $379. If you want, you can double up the hard disks for an extra $50.

There's a bunch a build-threads here:

 

viewtopic.php?f=45&t=768867

 

viewtopic.php?f=45&t=769028

 

viewtopic.php?f=45&t=767369

 

viewtopic.php?f=45&t=768189

 

viewtopic.php?f=45&t=767056

 

 

 

If you want something cheap that you could play games with, if you ever plan to, then a 9500gt 512mb would do. Otherwise, get something like this or this, i don't know if you notice any lag in what you're doing... If you do, you'll notice a difference. Personally, i'd get a new card... But that's me.

 

 

 

Nadrils sub 400$ thread is probably in your area, some good builds for a good price in there.

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Aha, i see.. Linux. I honestly cannot say how a *nix system would react on two different drivers (i don't think the 6 series uses the latest drivers). I do know that two different drivers are not possible for Vista, however, it does work on XP.

 

 

 

ATI has actually started working more and more on drivers for Linux the last year, but Nvidia drivers are still way ahead (compared to support on ATI cards one year ago til today on Linux, there's a big difference).

 

And you are right that it'd be less of an issue using a 2nd green card (wrote the other post right in the morning lol).

 

 

 

I know it is possbile to use two different cards for more monitors, but i don't know the (as stated) how the penguin would react to it, but i know it works on XP.

 

I'd switch the card to an 8400gs or 9400gt (both works fine), if you want to play rs on bigger res with graphics turned up.. Again, it's what i'd do, you're deciding=)

 

 

 

Any of these psu's will work fine: Corsair vx450w 80plus - 70$ after rebate, Antec earthwatts 500W 80plus - 50$, OCZ 400W 80plus - 40$ after rebate, SeaSonic 400W 80plus - 50$, Corsair 400w 80plus - 55$ after rebate

 

These are all quality manufacturer. And you'll have room to get a couple of more harddrives and change the gpu if you want to. I'd probably go for one of the 450-500 if you want to change your system later/putting in a couple of more hd's.

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