Best Linux Distro?

[BrianG]

OK, I've been doing a little shopping around to see what discounts I can get. I've also been looking around to see if Linux drivers are available for the hardware for those boxes. It seems chipset drivers for OEM stuff is kinda hard to find (and that's after you spend eons trying to figure out what chipset they use). Some aftermarket boards (like Asus) do have downloadable Linux chipset drivers, but others (like Gigabyte) don't. I know Linux may have "good enough" chipset drivers to get the system to work, but if I'm gonna spend close to a grand on a system, I'd like it to work at least somewhat close to 100% of its capability. Not looking to get every last ounce of performance, just close.

That said, I get 30% off for certain Dell machines, but again with the drivers. The Dell machine I'm looking at is: Intel quad core i7 860, Win7 Home 64-bit (which I won't be using), 8GB DDR3 (4 DIMMS), 1TB SATA drive (7200rpm), ATI Radeon HD5770, 16x DVD+/-RW. I can get this for just over $1k. I generally don't like OEM stuff though.

A similar alienware system (except it has a 500GB 10k rpm SATA drive) is $1300, which is only 20% off.

Argg. I think I'm just gonna wait a while until quad core is cheaper...