Suggestions for 2 builds please.

[Anahrah]

Hey all,

I'm considering building two new computers. It's been about 5 years since the last build and things seem to have changed considerably. So... I'm looking for suggestions.

For my first computer, I'd like suggestions on motherboard/processor/video card(s). The computer will be used primarily for playing WoW, Sims2, housing about 500Gb of music, Photoshop, Acid, and some number crunching for my bioinformatics programming classes.

For the second computer, I'd like to build a small and portable linux tablet. I don't need much in the way of HD space or processing... I want to use it primarily for school and VNCing to my first computer so that I can play my games in my living room without having to have a big noisy computer sitting by the couch.

I've been looking at several options (pico-itx, gumstix, etc). Also, I've found that the digitizer made by Wacom is actually quite inexpensive compared to what PC makers charge for tablet pcs (WAY overpriced!). Anyway, I want a small 7" or so screen that I can write on with a "pen" so I can take notes in class on it. This means I need a flavor of Linux that can accomplish this. I'm new to Linux so don't really know what I'm looking for. Also, I need the tablet to have a bit of storage for my digitized school books (pdf) and wireless web access. I'd like the whole thing to be solid state.

......Any suggestions?

[jimzinsocal]

Let me take this over to our new spot for builds...and welcome BTW