Getting that new hardware itch...

[Alan Jackson]

Well, my system is 4 1/2 years old, and beginning to show it's age so
early next year I plan to replace it. It will force me to move to Linux
2.6 too!
I have an old AMD 500 Mhz system with 500 Mb of RAM. 

Here's what I'm thinking - any recommendations or suggestions
are welcomed. I'm not a gamer or a multi-media guy - I do science
and noodling around so I don't need really high performance graphics, 
but I like to have oodles of memory and plenty of cycles. I run gentoo.

cpu : 2 Ghz Athlon 64 939
Motherboard : ASUS A8N-SLI - not sure which one, regular, premium, or deluxe
Disk : 2x250 Gb Western SATA
Memory : 2 Gb (4 Kingston 512k DDK 400)
DVD/CD/RW : Sony DRU 700A??
Video : eVGA GeForce 6200 128 Mb??
Audio : soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS

issues : I'd like to have about 4 serial ports for my PDA, weather station, 
X10 controller, etc. Not sure how to accomplish that. Newer motherboards
don't have serial ports (the board above has one). Suggestions for an add-in
card?

Are there any issues remaining with going to 64 bit? Especially with Gentoo
I'd think I'd be insulated against a lot of potential issues...

Not sure on the video card - I'd kinda like to get one that has the option 
for dual heads. I might want to do that in the future.

I'm shooting for around $1600-$1800 for the system - not cheap, but not
expensive either. About what I have *always* paid, actually.

If there are good Linux-ready suppliers you love, I'll look there too. I'm
not committed to doing myself, I'm just exploring the options and prices.
At least if I buy it prebuilt for Linux, I don't have to sweat the
compatibility issues.

-- 
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| Alan K. Jackson            | To see a World in a Grain of Sand      |
| alan at ajackson.org          | And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,         |
| www.ajackson.org           | Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand |
| Houston, Texas             | And Eternity in an hour. - Blake       |
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