Advice needed for a new Non-gaming Linux build - Specific requirements

[kniwor]

Hello Everyone, I've been out of touch with the hardware and need advice. I tried to read and understand whatever I could about the current market before posting this.

My budget for the cabinet (with everything inside) is $500-600 and is flexible, basically I need the best value for money. The machine will be running Ubuntu 32bit and gaming is not a priority. However, it would be a crying shame if it did not have any graphic capabilities at all. I have no AMD/Intel bias and would be happy to build an AMD rig if that's the best value for money. The machine will primarily be used for statistical analysis (python codes, and handling data sets).

I looked around and i5 2500K seems like a good choice (or i7 2600K if I can fit in budget). 2x4Gb ram (suggestions?). I would rather not spend any time on overclocking, back in the days overclocking was a time consuming thing, setting every voltage, multiplier and testing over and over. In-fact, half my mind is to deliberately not buy a K series so I am forced not to overclock, and save my time. But if OCing is really easy these days and provides considerable boost, I can put in a little bit of time. I will need suggestions on Cabinet and PSU as well. I am clueless as to what chipsets are good, what the graphic solutions are and such, I'd rather not spend much on the board. A hard disk needed as well, but boot times are no prob, I don't need an SSD. I'm located in Chicago, if that helps in pricing, since this is a thread asking for best bang for buck.

Also if someone can briefly explain me how graphic solutions work these days? Last I remember life was simple, there was a CPU and a separate GPU, GPU did graphics, Period. You got what you put in(GPU). I've a feeling things aren't that way anymore.

[desnudopenguino]

Hmm. For a linux box, the 2500K or 2600k should be great, along with a reasonable nVidia GPU. NVidia has better support for the *nix realm than ATI/AMD because they release drivers. The ATI/AMD drivers are community built usually. You are going to have to compile ubuntu with some special modules to enable that much ram on a 32 bit system. I would highly suggest a 64 bit system to take advantage of the full power of the system. The best "value for money" might be an AMD Thuban right now. I know you said you're not much into overclocking, but you can get a pretty nice OC on a BE 1090T pretty easily that would allow for more headroom for other components. It comes in probably around $50 less than a 2500k. I would settle on a medium-of-the-line MB as the cheaper ones sometimes are missing some features that might be more helpful (external esata, usb & sata 3, etc...) as well as some issues that sometimes arise from cheap hardware. But yeah, my biggest recommendation for you would be to use a 64 bit OS if you plan on using such a powerful system.

[kniwor]

Hi, Thanks for your valuable input.

About the 32 vs 64 bit; Ubuntu 10.04 and up, can access upto 64 gig out of the box. Also, I do intent to also use 64bit Ubuntu but the 32 bit will be the primary OS for a while at-least.

Can you suggest a config built around the Thuban 1090T BE? One that works well with Ubuntu. Remember, compatibility with Ubuntu is the most important factor, a gread proc/vid card is useless if it doesn't perform optimally in ubuntu because there are no drivers, or whatever other reason!

Here's what I was looking at:

Intel i5 2500K - $180 (Micro Center)
ASUS P8Z68-V LX - $118 (Newegg)
Ripjaws - 2x4Gb - $47
HDD - 1TB or 2TB, which one?
DVD Burner - ?
Cabinet - ?
PSU - ?

[WangChung]

I've been (re)learning Linux using Mint on a VM, and I have to say the hardware requirements are really forgiving. $500 rig or less should be easily do-able.

[kniwor]

Linux would run well on anything, but my stress on performance isn't for Linux itself, but the stuff that I intend to run on it. Hence the investment.

[kniwor]

This seems like a good deal and might be worth the $$; Can someone suggest me a Good Motherboard though.
http://www.microcenter.com/specials/...ding_0127.html

[kniwor]

Ok, so I considered the AMD options, but in the end the local Microcenter had a great deal on i5 2500K; So, here's what I got

i5 2500K + ASUS P8z68-V + 2x4Gb Kingston HyperX 1600 - $312

Now, if anyone can make suggestions on a decent PSU + Cabinet + DVD + HDD, I'm all set.

[kniwor]

Thanks everyone for the inputs. It was very helpful. Here is what I ended up getting in the end

Intel i5 2500k
ASUS P8Z68-V LX
8Gb(2x4Gb) G.SKILL Sniper DDR3 1600
OCZ ZS Series 550W 80PLUS
Seagate 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
COOLER MASTER HAF 912

I've not used a DVD drive in years, so I'll just buy it whenever I feel the need, if ever. Thanks for all the help.