[linux-audio-user] pc suggestions

[Sciss]

hello,

i have been off the list for a while. i need a rather _urgent_ advice  
on the buying of a PC for combined Linux / WinXP audio. as a personal  
Mac user, i'm rather bad concerning the different CPUs, mother  
boards, firmwares etc.

the budget is 3000 EUR, which must cover the whole computer including  
soundcard (= HDSP 9652 which is 500 EUR here). monitors we have  
already. the setup suggested to me is intel core 2 duo (which one?  
also i don't know if there are 64bit problems with windows or  
linux?), like 2.33 GHz or better, and ubuntu distribution, PCI  
architecture (to my knowledge RME hasn't released any PCIe versions  
of its cards), matrox graphicscard. the machine is standing in a  
separate room, so space / housing / noise is a rather low priority.  
the graphicscard must be able to feed two TFT monitors analogue (but  
digital-option would be cool), so the suggestion is matrox millenium  
p650 (costs 220 EUR approx. however 64 MB RAM doesn't sound extremely  
fancy nowadays??). it should have a couple of USB2 and a firewire  
connector.

for people reading in germany, if you have any recommendation of  
companies selling those boxes (preferably "all in one") with linux  
compatibility in mind, i'm thankfull for receiving hints offlist.

is there anything that certainly won't work?

thanks, -sciss-