I've just ordered my new computer last night, made a few compromises based on what was in stock, no monitor yet.


Just to give you an idea of what I reckon is worthwhile:


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Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 $165 - Would have gotten the 990XA cheaper but not available yet. 970XA is a cheap deal too, as is Asus M5A97. AM3+ is upgradeable for a few years.


AMD Phenom II x6 1055T $159 - Cheapest x6 available, more cores > more GHz. Other option is cheap 2/3/4x now for half the price and 8-core end of this year.


Corsair CMX 2x2GB 1600C9 $39 - No need for >1600 or C8/C7 speeds, get 8GB only for winbloats machines


Gigabyte GT440 1GB $77 - Could have gotten GT210/420/430/520 cheaper, or a Radeon, but nVidia has always supported linux.


OCZ Vertex 2 60GB SSD $109 - linux only needs 20GB really. Consider 120/240GB+ for winbloats


Seagate 1TB HDD $55 - 7200rpm and 6GB/s link, watch out for slower like 5400 or 3GB/s. 64MB cache is nice but this one only has 32MB. No need for 2/3TB (yet)


Silverstone Strider 500W PSU $69 - Others are cheaper, but I like silverstone. 12cm fans on big side are quiter than 8cm fans on back. Can't reuse old one on new MB, dammit.


Samsung 22x DVDRW $24 - Who needs bluray?


Logitech MK260 wireless KB/mouse $29 - Because my last keyboard went to my parents.


2.5" - 3.5" drive bay adapter $9 - For the ssd, why not.


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All up, $767 shipped, in Aussie$. Re-using my (very) old (12-13 years) case, but may reconsider later. Stock cooler with the CPU, unless i can re-jig my old home-made watercooler to fit.


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And I went to get my Dell 27" Ultrasharp monitor last night, it's now $900, so i might hold off and hope it goes back to $800 any time soon. But that's the core of photo editing so i can't wait much more than a week after i've finished compiling and configuring my system...