Recently built a new desktop. Take a look:
Features:
- Intel i5 4-core, 3.2 GHz
- MSI P67A Motherboard
- 1 TB Seagate hard disk drive
- 64 GB Solid State Drive
- 8 GB DDR3 RAM
- ATI Radeon HD 6850
- Large ATX case
My previous desktop was a bargain HP Compaq (a gift from my family, I would never have bought a Compaq for myself) which performed all right but was made of low-quality parts. The thing finally died a few weeks ago, so I went out and put together this computer out of high quality parts for about $750, and without being forced to buy Windows.
The best part is probably the case. I have never had a computer before where I had so much room to wire stuff around. The second best is the SSD; I have all my programs installed there and the system is flying. It runs Ubuntu 64-bit Server. (Not that I’m running it as a server; I installed the regular desktop kernel and I can use Ubuntu’s superior repositories, but I’m not forced to run GNOME or KDE, or, most thankfully, PulseAudio.)
I am very happy.
As for the old desktop, I threw in an inexpensive, low-end (but again higher quality) motherboard and CPU, and it’s working well again and ready to begin its life as my DVR.
