On Sat, May 1, 2010 at 4:11 AM, Peiman Khosravi <peimankhosravi@gmail.com> wrote:

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).

you can find various "kits" to build computer from parts w/o paying for MS Windows. ALso they sell various manufacturers like Visionman http://www.visionman.com/  and Cybertron http://www.cybertronpc.com/ that sell computers w/o any OS installed. 

If you want to build one that's quieter, consider putting together your own from powersupply/case suggested at

http://www.silentpcreview.com/ . 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: http://www.rainrecording.com/ http://www.sweetwater.com/creation_station/ ... not clear what advantage these would provide...

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 http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Product.aspx?C=1320&ID=1428 or 

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1033-page1.html ...  

I too am and will be running the awesome PlanetCCRMA distro ( http://ccrma.stanford.edu/planetccrma/software/ ).