<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>Dear Niels,</div><div><br></div>Thanks very much indeed. That certainly points me in the right direction.<div><br></div><div>Best,</div><div><br></div><div>Peiman<br><div><br></div><div><br><div><div>On 1 May 2010, at 17:45, Niels Mayer wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div>On Sat, May 1, 2010 at 4:11 AM, Peiman Khosravi <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:peimankhosravi@gmail.com" target="_blank">peimankhosravi@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.8ex; border-left-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-left-style: solid; padding-left: 1ex; "> I am thinking of replacing my macbook pro with a desktop. What's more, I would like to try a linux system this time. Not only to save money but also because I use less and less commercial stuff every day (ardour, csound and audacity are my main applications).<br> </blockquote></div><div><br></div>In the USA, <a href="http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_tlc.asp?CatId=31" target="_blank">http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_tlc.asp?CatId=31</a><div> you can find various "kits" to build computer from parts w/o paying for MS Windows. ALso they sell various manufacturers like Visionman <a href="http://www.visionman.com/" target="_blank">http://www.visionman.com/</a> and Cybertron <a href="http://www.cybertronpc.com/" target="_blank">http://www.cybertronpc.com/</a> that sell computers w/o any OS installed. </div> <div><br></div><div>If you want to build one that's quieter, consider putting together your own from powersupply/case suggested at</div><div><a href="http://www.silentpcreview.com/">http://www.silentpcreview.com/</a> . You potentially get better reliability as the power supply is usually skimped-on in low-cost PCs. There are companies that sell overpriced music PC's: <a href="http://www.rainrecording.com/">http://www.rainrecording.com/</a> <a href="http://www.sweetwater.com/creation_station/">http://www.sweetwater.com/creation_station/</a> ... not clear what advantage these would provide...</div> <div><br></div><div>I'm planning on recovering an asus matx mobo and amd opteron 1212 dual core (overclocks to 2.8G easy) from a server i'm upgrading into my portable music computer (laptop died, only have desktops now). I'll be using a case like <a href="http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Product.aspx?C=1320&ID=1428">http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Product.aspx?C=1320&ID=1428</a> or </div> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><a href="http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1033-page1.html">http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1033-page1.html</a> ... </div><div><br></div><div> I too am and will be running the awesome PlanetCCRMA distro ( <a href="http://ccrma.stanford.edu/planetccrma/software/">http://ccrma.stanford.edu/planetccrma/software/</a> ).</div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div> <br></div><div><div>Niels<br><a href="http://nielsmayer.com" target="_blank">http://nielsmayer.com</a><br></div></div></blockquote></div><br></div></div></body></html>