A budget machine for giggles.

[synkr0nized]

Hello, NPF tech-oriented folks.

Long story short I have toyed with the idea of getting a Mac mini to replace my Linux box. However, they still run Core 2 Duos and, as a friend has reminded me, the Apple-brand inflation leaves me with a budget of around six hundred dollars that could be applied to building something with more bang for the buck.

So, I'm curious to see what you'd put together if you were doing it. Feel free to use the mini as a starting point/reference to compare.

I was throwing together parts myself, but with just a motherboard, CPU, hard drive, and memory I have already approached the mini's pricetag (I have noticed my handicap trends toward newer tech/top performers, though this machine is not meant to be a gaming rig or the like). So while I re-think my choices, I thought it would be insightful to get some other opinions/ideas.