thiussat

I would like to add, has your uncle used *nix before? Even though *nix is more newb friendly now than ever, there is still a decent learning curve. That said, there are a few things you can't do on *nix that you can in Winblows:

1) If you subscribe to Netflix, you CANNOT watch their online movies using *nix (or even Mac OSX). This is the main reason I even have a Windows parition, and as soon as Netflix gets on the ball and dumps DRM encryption, I am dumping Windows all together.

2) Even though you can shrink (encode) DVD's in *nix, it is much easier and convenient in Windoze. DVD burning itself is better in *nix (k3b). It's the encoding that is a b*tch.

3) Windoze is better for stress testing overclocks (this is the 2nd reason I run Windows at all). Linux has ways of testing OC's, but they are more complicated. For instance, there aren't any Orthos-like point and click progs (that I have seen) for *nix. You can run Prime95 and SuperPi in Linux, but I haven't seen ways to run 2 threads at once (though there probably are ways).

Positives of *nix:

1) No viruses or spyware and thus no need for AV software. *nix is more secure overall especially if you learn the in's and out's of iptables.
2) More stable overall -- servers often run for 5+ years without reboot.
3) OpenOffice is free and very comparable to MS Office.
4) All of the usual every day activities of computer use can be done in *nix and done better (browsing, email, mp3's, DVD viewing etc.)
5) Comp-iz fusion desktop (google it or watch demos on youtube).
6) There is no IE to contend with.
7) Linux doesn't call for 4 GB of RAM like Vista, even though it looks better than Vista.
8) SuperPi for me runs at 24s in Linux, while in Windows it runs at 30s.
9) *nix has strict user controls that Vista tried to copy, but failed in doing so.
10) *nix and all of the software costs $0.

Not to get off topic, but those are a few things to ponder when choosing the OS. As far as the build, as I said, build it like you normally would for a Windows box. *nix will run on just about any hardware. Just be sure to get an nVidia card.