New hardware needed

[Cybermonkey]

Hey, thanks guys.
@User137: Very useful links, thanks.
@all: I think I might go the AMD way. My actual PC is an Intel Core 2 Duo, with mainly Xubuntu 12.04 on it. Everything other than XFCE seems to slow down my Geforce 8600 GT. In my shop I got an Athlonx 64 X2 with only 2GB RAM (my home PC's got 4GB), already over one year old with onboard graphics and it seems faster to me. The PC before my actual home PC is already in my shop, it's a Pentium 4, a snail. Before that I had an AMD K5? It was like a Pentium with 200 MHz and was really fast for that days.
Well, I am not the hardcore gamer (seems that game programmers don't have time to play games ...) but now and then I like to play some games. I will definately have a look at the new Tomb Raider next year, besides of that we have some nice German PC gaming magazines with full versions on their CDs/DVDs. For example Drakensang used to be on one. Needless to say it doesn't perform very well on my actual PC.
Oh, another point I have to take care of: the graphics card needs to have a VGA port, since my (bit older) FullHD display has no other option to connect.

EDIT: What I found for even a lower price (319,00€) is a complete system with an Athlon II X4 631, 8GB RAM (DDR 3 - 1333MHz only), a Radeon HD6670 with 2GB and 640 GB HDD. (It will be a dualboot system). At last this is a bargain, I guess ...

[code_glitch]

2GB HD6670 = DRR3 not GDDR5 model, and that can result in quite a hit on performance... As for a VGA port, displayport has VGA adapters you can use... Though if its a system thats super-reposnive, an SSD truly is the way to go

[WILL]

Before I can throw in my 2 cents, what kind of development do you want to do?

Cross-platform? Commercial? Stick to a single platform? library development? just hobby/freeware/community stuff? High end graphics and 3D with physics?

[Cybermonkey]

Before I can throw in my 2 cents, what kind of development do you want to do?

Cross-platform? Commercial? Stick to a single platform? library development? just hobby/freeware/community stuff? High end graphics and 3D with physics?

Development should be cross-platform, Windows and Linux. At the moment just hobby/freeware stuff, usually 2D (with physics ).

[WILL]

Sorry for taking so long to reply.

Development should be cross-platform, Windows and Linux. At the moment just hobby/freeware stuff, usually 2D (with physics ).

Ok well if you only want to support Windows and Linux then you might be safe sticking with a Windows machine for your development platform. However should you ever want to support Mac OS X, then I would suggest making the Mac your main development platform. Simply put it's 1000 times easier to go from a Mac-based Lazarus project that accounts for Windows than it is to go from a Windows-based Lazarus project and then account for Mac. Bundling, resource paths, etc. I can't emphasize that enough.

Windows development is a heck of a lot easier than Mac, I can't speak towards Linux as I've only tinkered and played with it on the odd occation and out of the box Lazarus seems to play nicer on both of those OSes than Mac. That said, Lazarus 1.0 has just come out and it could be a whole different story.

How this relates to hardware... it doesn't. Other than the Mac factor of course.

To be honest, what hardware you get shouldn't matter too much for 2D other than getting a good decent graphics card that can do the level of shading you want to pursue should you get into 3D. If you ever want to go commercial, I'd consider a Mac simply to develop on to cover the booming Mac/iOS markets. (a Mac Mini if you don't want a heavy investment) You won't make any money (or enough to matter) from Linux.

Sorry I couldn't tell you buy X, Y or Z piece of hardware. I don't think you need that advice from me anyhow. Just balance out what is in your budget with how cutting edge it is and you'll have something that should last you long enough until you have to replace it down the road.

[Super Vegeta]

As for Windows vs. Linux as dev platform, cross-compiling from Windows is a pain in the ass. Under Linux, I had no problems whatsoever. Speaking of Lazarus, I guess it depends on what components do you use, but I personally found some features lacking under Windows. Configuring Linux can be tiresome at the beginning, mostly because you're already used to the Windows interface and because, oh well, You have to learn something about the system. But if you give it some time, you can really bend the OS to your wish.

It's a matter of personal choice, but frankly, after I finally found a distro I liked (Fedora) and configured it to be comfortable for me, WinXP on my laptop is mostly laying dormant, sometimes turned on for gaming.

Or, if you like challenges and don't mind spending some time banging your head against the wall, maybe try coLinux? It is an interesting project that allows you to, basically, run Linux alongside Windoze. (Yep, you have two kernels running alongside eachother at the same time). Configuration can be tough, but then, you won't have to dual boot and switch OS..

[Cybermonkey]

Sorry, guys, I already know Linux. I use Linux since the beginning of this millenium. I know how to configure Lazarus and Freepascal under Linux and Window. Thanks for that but it was more the hardware question because it was clear that this will become a dual-boot machine. Linux will be some Ubuntu flavour either Kubuntu or Linux Mint KDE. I think I will go with that Athlon X4, I think that's almost 3-4 times faster than my actual PC according to the benchmarks. As for the Mac: it's too expensive (even a Mac Mini) currently. Btw, for development, I will have a closer look at Asphyre Sphinx 3. Seems what I need although I'm missing some beginner's tutorial.