Work PC - $1,500 budget

Hi,

Please see the `Additional comments'

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE:

No rush.

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT:

0) Run openSUSE 11.x
1) Stable work computer: e-mail, database work
2) Run Oracle/Sybase natively
3) Run SUN VirtualBox VM's

PARTS NOT REQUIRED:

o Keyboard, mouse, speakers
o Display

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS:

I'm only looking for a parts list. I live in a rural area and there's a guy/company down the road who, for a nominal price, will source the parts for me. I'd like to give him my business - even if it costs me a little more.

PARTS PREFERENCES:

o CPU: I7 920
o Graphics: nVidia

OVERCLOCKING:

If it'll affect stability, no.

MONITOR RESOLUTION:

I plan on using my existing 1920x1200 display. And the accompanying PCI-e graphics card from my existing machine.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:

I'm not a gamer. I know my personality and it's better that I stay away. This will be a machine I use for work. I currently have a Dell Precision 370 - P4 3.0GHz and my Duo Core 2.4GHz laptop is faster than the desktop. This must change.

Here are the criteria I seek:

o It must be compatible with openSUSE 11.x - this is my native O/S
o quiet
o minimal heat generation
o support at least 4GB of RAM. I'm thinking of possibly going to 8GB.
o at least two internal SATA bays.
o a PCI-e graphics slot for my existing card

I hope the above is sufficient information.

Edit: I've been leaning toward an I7 920 but I can't seem to find proof-positive information whether it's fully functional under Linux.

You can get a very stable overclock if you don't try to push it too far, 3.3ghz or so is pretty easy and you wouldn't experience stability problems, just run Prime95 for 24 to 36 hours to make sure its absolutely stable. This CPU cooler will make overclocking easy:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 0mugen%202

You have a pretty easy budget to work with to make a really nice PC, so if you don't want to overclock, you could just get a faster i7, like the i7 950 or i7 940 when prices drop on it. The i7 950 is supposed to be released very soon, and will occupy the same price segment as the 940 currently, which will push the 940 down ~$100 or so I would guess...assuming it doesn't go EOL.

The reason I'm not jumping all over the thread is the whole driver compatibility thing. General parts are easy, but building something that is going to work for your operating systems is not a topic we handle here much.

I may get some time to investigate this more tonight. Any links you have to hardware compatibility lists would help.

I thought I'd post a follow-up. For the MOBO, although it may be more `board' than I need, I'm going with the P6T Deluxe V2. Mostly because someone else has it running on `openSUSE 11.x' and I need it. Thank you Proximon for the HCL link. I very much appreciate it.

It hasn't been released yet, its supposed to be released very soon now, like anytime.

Excellent! Thank you very much. I was _just_ looking at graphics cards. Thank you for the other links. Time for more research.

I wanted to follow up ... I built The Rig today. I quickly installed `openSUSE 11.1' and she's running. I ran a couple of compiles and I peaked some of the CPU's at around 50C. At idle, they're between 27 and 34C.

I'll re-install `openSUSE 11.1' later today and dial the box in like I like it: XFS, dev packages, etc.

A big _thank you_ to Proximon and xthekidx. You made my build super-simple.

I did have a moment where the machine wouldn't start ... it turns out the ATX cable was a bit loose. I re-seated it (still not super positive connection) and bam, she lit up.

Nice and quiet too!