And also, just out of curiousity, is it profitable to build and sell computers?

Well, it seems to work for Dell

PS: i will be running slackware 10.1

So... it will be a midtower case and i already have RAM, PCI networking card, cdrom, mouse, keyboard, and monitor.

What I'm looking for:

-Hard Drive 40+GB -- No more than $50 (i assume that any big brand like maxtor or western digital will do the trick...)

Check out TigerDirect. I've always had pretty good luck with them. I got a nice GeForce FX 5500 from them about 6-7 months ago - 256MB RAM, S-Video Out, DVI (still not sure what uses that - probably brand-new latest-and-greatest monitors?) for about $80.
I'd recommend nVidia. I've had pretty good luck with their cards - last time I tried ATi I never did get the driver to work.
You might wanna get a board that has a soundcard in it - keep your PCI slots free. IMO if you don't care about sound quality too much then that's the way to go - most boards have it on there anyway, and I haven't had a PC with onboard sound that hasn't worked in Linux.
Also, I'd look for a tower with USB/FireWire/sound ports in the front - they're not too expensive (mine was like $30, I think) and it's handy when you need it.
Again, check TigerDirect. I've got a Celeron, not a P4, but still 2.8 GHz, and it runs great.
Also, if you REALLY want to boost your speed, recompile the kernel (or at least look at the configuration) to make sure it has your specific processor family selected - can't remember if Slack does this on its own (I upgraded it to kernel 2.6.12.3 - not sure if I specifically told it my processor family or if it already knew from the previous kernel's config) but it's good to check, if you really want the speed (if it's wrong, it generally won't hurt you to leave it alone so if you don't care that much don't bother, but if you do it makes the kernel able to make use of a few extra optimizations.
I'd HIGHLY recommend a DVD burner. I just got one from Best Buy about a month ago - 4x double layer (allows you to put ~8.5GB or 4 hrs of video on one DVD), 16x DVD+/-R, 8x+RW, 6x-RW. . . "all the fixin's" for $100 - and then there's a $30 rebate.
Even if you don't burn music/DVD's/whatever and think you don't need it, I'd HIGHLY recommend AT LEAST a CD burner - Knoppix comes in real handy sometimes. . .

Thanks!

My absolute favorite Linux set-up I have ever built (stable!)

Monitor: Sylvania F70 CRT 15"
Processor: Intel Celeron 466MhZ (Mendocino)
Motherboard: Intel WL810
Sound Card: Onboard
Video: Nvidia GeForce2 64Mb
Hard Disk: Samsung SVH 80GB IDE
CD-ROM: 56x Adaptec CD-ROM IDE (Black)
CD-RW: 16x Yamaha CD-RW SCSI (Black)
SCSI: Tekram Technologies SCSI Controller
Floppy: 3.5" Floppy Drive (Black)
Case: Aspire X-QPACK (Black/Silver)
Operating Systems: 1) Microsoft Windows 2003 Server Enterprise
2) Slackware 10.1 (Kernel- 2.6.12) (KDE - 3.4) ---DEFAULT

Uptime of 3 months now (since I built it!)

It cost me exactly $301 to build! Utilizing eBay for unopened computer parts.

Of all the dual-boot setups to have. . . why Win2k3 Server and Slack?

I could understand WinXP or 2000 or something for Windows apps, but why 2k3 Server? Linux is generally considered a much better OS for setting up a server.

And why do you have the word "DEFAULT" after Slack 10.1? That's NOT the default setup - Slack comes with 2.4.29, a package for 2.6.10 on the install CDs, and KDE 3.3.

Well, I love Win2003Server just because of stability and thats the only reason its there, heh. Slackware is my default boot option I actually meant, I know its irrevelant, but I decided to put it in.

Back off mah kool-aid!
HAHA! S'all G00d

The system:

I will pay for about 75 to 150 US dollars. Probably, it will sell better if the components are individually sold. Dell buys computer components in quanties in the hundreds or thousands which makes it cost less. Also Dell tries to cut corners to reduce the price even more. Ever seen several posts in this forum about Creative Lab Soundblaster LIVE from Dell machine. This card is revised so the price of the card is much lower than the retail and even the OEM models.

DDR2 memory will not work with the 939 socket motherboard. You have to use two DDR memory modules. DDR2 memory modules are only for socket T motherboards.

I strongly recommend you consider buying the TEAC floppy disk drive. It is far more reliable than Samsung floppy disk drives. Many of my systems have TEAC floppy disk drives and they never fail even if the voltage is reversed or the floppy disk drive is drop a few meters.

Sheesh why everybody wants black floppy drive this and black DVD/CDROM drive that. It costs more for a black drive than a white drive. Get the white drive and paint the panel. The floppy drive panel easily comes off. DVD/CDROM drive panel is a little tricky to come off but you can use the black faceplate from the case to make the drive stealth.

Windows being stable. That is saying pigs fly. My AMD 700 MHz with 512 MB of SDRAM that I got in the year of 2000 is much better than your system that you bought a few months ago.

Windows being stable. That is saying pigs fly. My AMD 700 MHz with 512 MB of SDRAM that I got in the year of 2000 is much better than your system that you bought a few months ago. [/B][/QUOTE]

Well thank you! To each his own. I'm glad you have let me know! I might as well throw it out! I didn't know it wasn't stable after 3 months of running without any issues..hmph.

</sarcasm>

I'll reiterate in case you missed it:

Get a PATA hard drive! Do NOT get a SATA hard drive!

For maximum compatability and ease of installation, don't get SATA yet. Stick with plain old parallel IDE (uses a wide ribbon cable, not a thin cable).

Alright... I'll go with IDE: I don't notice little differences in HD speed anyways

And ill look at the TEAC floppy drives. I hope the system sells for at least $100; i can't afford spending a full $400 with no money gotten from the old computer. I wish newegg had promotional codes!!!!

This is a big segway but it leads to the main reason im making this PC. Does Linux have some good free video editing software? I am building this comp mainly to help with my movie editing and if i could use just linux and not windows movie maker, that would rock.

Is that just 3 months without issues or 3 months running day and night without issues? NO OS has stability problems after 3 months of normal, day-to-day use. When I ran WinXP (back then I had an Athlon XP 1600+, 80GB primary HD [40GB for Win, 40 for Linux], 20GB secondary HD, 512MB DDR). . . sure, it ran fine for day-to-day use, I could run games on it, surf the web, download stuff. . . all that just fine. Running it more than 3 or 4 days, though. . . it would get all bogged-down and stuff.

However, I had a Counter-Strike server in the basement running full-time with Linux - 400mHz, 192MB PC100, 12GB HD - and it ran GREAT. NEVER had to reboot. NEVER. No matter how many visitors I would get, that thing would keep on going. Ran for 4-5 months straight - not that it crashed or slowed down or anything, but I wasn't using it much anymore and decided to turn it off.

3 Months, no reboot, no shut downs, no slow downs. Meow.

I've used my mx440 on about 4 distros, it's been just peachy keen
and plays ut2004 fine in windows -haven't tried it in linux yet (spare linux hd too small)

What do you use it for, though? E-mail, Internet, and music?

I'm sure it'd need a reboot every couple days if it were used for system-intensive stuff like gaming or video editing. I use mine for gaming.