[IIMaxII]

I want to build a spare PC for no reason other than just to have one. I am currently going for the under $300 range and wanted it to consume a small amount of power, but I'm not sure which CPU I should go with...What is generally more compatible? Intel or AMD?

 

[NFSxperts]

Do you plan on gaming at all with this pc? If yes, choose an AMD A8, if not, then Intel for lower power and heat.
You could probably get a dual core ivy bridge Pentium and a B75 board.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Pentium G2120 3.1GHz Dual-Core Processor ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B75M-HD3 Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($62.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($32.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital AV-GP 250GB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($30.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 350W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($49.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $251.93
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-08-06 05:21 EDT-0400)

Substitute the psu/case with something you like.

 

[IIMaxII]

Nah no gaming, that will be reserved to my main pc. I do want to consume less power. I was thinking of going with a 64gb ssd because I don't need more storage than that, but all the 64gb ssds I have seen have bad reviews. I kind of want a snappy system.

I'm thinking of going with the a6-6400k because it's cheaper.

 

[l0max]

the barebones zotac zbox and similar small chassis computers play well with linux.
i'm looking forward to the gigabyte brix with kabini for a samba share/ linux home server setup.

 

[IIMaxII]

I can't find any reliable cheap 64gb ssds. :/

 

[IIMaxII]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1oQkLWhat do you guys think of this?

 

[l0max]

you're missing a power supply, and i'm not a fan of cheap atx cases but it will work.

 

[IIMaxII]

There's an Enermax power supply right there at the bottom. lol Case doesn't matter for this as I'll barely be using it.

 

[IIMaxII]

There's an Enermax power supply right there at the bottom. lol Case doesn't matter for this as I'll barely be using it.

 

[l0max]

if you've got the cash upgrade to the A8-5500 it's a really cheap quadcore with good performance.

i can't wait for kabini devices to start showing up with nice designs.

 

[NFSxperts]

What about this? Has an A6 and a Crucial M4.
(http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1pw0o)

Do you prefer to buy from 1 vendor only or go with cheapest price?

 

[WOD35]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128598

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148466

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811108417

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136927

Total cost $370

With this system you could run many virtual machines with 16GB ram. One of those VM's could be a PFSense firewall thanks to Dual LAN on this board. 1TB means you can have many large partitions for different OS, not just Ubuntu, and also double
(triple?) as NAS thanks to large drive size and run 24/7 to do all those things thanks to very low power use.

You could drop the ram down to 4 or 8GB and the HDD size down to closer fit your budget.