I want to find a desktop PC that can be maxed out on RAM and a good graphics accelerator as cheaply as possible. Something that might have been “top end” a few years ago. Not for Windows either.
I wonder where I could find that or should I just make it myself? Its been a while since I had a desktop
Oh, so this and your ubuntu studio / dreamstudio linux distribution question makes me think you're looking for a PC that will do high-performance graphics ? Sound ? Both ? Video ?
Performance is not too much of a problem today unless you're doing something intense.
If you get a PC with a large amount of memory you'll need a 64-bit linux distro to make use of the memory anyway (I think the ultimate 32-bit limit is 16G on red hat/CentOS).
Your applications, drivers, etc., would then have to be compatible with 64-bit linux.
I ordered me up a simple Dell a few years back. I had specific requirements: mostly, I wanted to NOT have too much processing power - I mostly was concerned with the machine running cool, thereby lasting longer. Super-fast CPUs jammed into small boxes have a way of overheating, even with fans blowing on them. It always seems to happen when the warranty runs out. Always seems to happen with "bleeding edge" stuff, like a Quad-core Dell laptop that I purchased a few years ago, and ran the "virtual" CentOS so I could simultaneously run a Windows XP installation AND several other CentOS installations. Because of the way virtual machine ran Windows XP, it kept 1 core constantly at 100% while it was running. It was a bear keeping that LAPTOP cool. It finally died when I spilled a little water on the keyboard; I can only conclude it was "ridden hard and put away wet".
I like the idea of going with a large outfit and not piecing together my own machine IF I'm spend-conscious at the time. If money is no object, then experimenting a little putting pieces and parts together is fine, of course. This is because there are a lot of possibilities that have to be considered (it can quickly get complicated if you're looking for special performance or combinations of hardware needs) and I don't find many vendors being too super about returning electronics if I'm just buying one item. If I make a choice that proves to not work when I get everything set up and running, I'm hosed and I wasted my money.
Also, the more heavy duty the processor is, the more power is needed; most household circuits are only 15amp or 20amp and there is more than the 1 PC on the circuit. (I always recommend investing in a good APC power protector/cleaner/backup). I've had a rack-type server in my house; it had 8 cores, the fans sounded really cool like a jet engine running, the beast drew about 800 watts and cost a little over $4,000. If there was no need to have it, you can see how silly it would be to "go there".
Most people (even professionals) have a very hard time figuring out the root cause of "performance problems". It could be slow networking, CPU speed maxed out, disk I/O rate maxed out, poorly designed software, an "anomaly" situation that the sofware was not designed for, etc., but many professionals fail to isolate the most serious part(s) of their problems, so their solution is not the correct one. Usually they wind up going out and buying way more computer than they need as their "fix", and the crappy software sits running forever on their servers, "dimming the lights" as it runs "around the world" to go "next door".
My current Dell is dual core, has a nice big roomy open airy cabinet that's easy to pop open - and it only uses about about 80 watts with the monitor and router going as well.
Having the fast graphics card is critical for intense video, gaming, etc.
However, you need the OS to be USING the video card for rendering graphics; this is not always the case. On my version of the OS with my built-in Intel graphics, it's NOT using the graphics card to render. I always keep my CPU monitor applet on my taskbar, and my OS takes advantage of CPU scaling (running both cores at 1.60GHz to 2.83GHz depending on need). If I watch long videos, I always knock down the quality down to 240 so I can keep the CPU down to less than 30% for all that time (I keep track that I only go above 1.6GHz CPU speed for "bursts", not for hours on end).
On linux,
OpenGL/DRI is the key to fast graphics. I would think the current releases of linux distros would be shipping with DRI (direct rendering) support, but my CentOS version is a couple years old and it did not come with DRI support. I'm not working on moving ahead right now because I'm busy and don't have a need.
Use the glxinfo command to query about X windows OpenGL GLX extension; one line of output early on will indicate direct rendering support.
Of course, there will be precious few models from most PC sellers that come with a linux distro installed. I prefer to install it myself anyway so I get to make the choices (as little as possible extra stuff that I don't use; can always install other things later).
I found that the Dell guy worked with me pretty well - I was upfront and said I wanted to be around the $500 area and I wanted a dual core, "roomy" cool cabinet, that I did not want a super-fast CPU. The call took a while and he hung in there with me until I made my choice.