Which desktop to buy

[amcdonald]

I built a six core AMD machine running at 22ghz with an ATI HD6870 for under £500, it's not as good as an I7, but it's good for any development work running as many virtual machines as I need, and when I'm bored playing Black Ops, Bad Company without skipping a beat so good enough for games as well

Unless you want to play games at silly resolutions, you could get a cheaper system building an AMD rig.

[Sysman]

Hard drive in the current machine is dying, so rather than just fix that bit, I'm looking at getting a new desktop machine. I'll be moving two of the three existing hard drives into the new one, and putting Linux on it.

I don't do any real gaming. I do some video editing occasionally, but not too often. BUT I need something that will be powerful enough for all the development work I currently do - usually involves a couple of virtual machines.

I'm stating the obvious here, but do check the video card for compatibility with your choice of Linux. Some Googling for potential problems with the apps you use might be useful.

[TheFaQQer]

Went for a 6 Core AMD Phenom in the end - just paid for it, should be delivered on Tuesday, all being well