Linux & Duel Boot

I am building a desktop & would like to duel boot with Linuz & Windows XP. I need someone with Linux savy to tell me if the components I have is adequate for Linux. Power Supply: Corsair 650 W. Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA785GT-UD3H. Memory: Corsair XMS3 (2X2 GB) DDR3 1333. CPU: AMD Athlon II x4 640. HDD 2x Seagate barracuda 7200.12 500 GB. Case: Cooler Master Gladiator 600.
I plan to load each OS onto it's own HDD & wifh seperate internet security for each, in other words, two seperate operating systems. I know the components are OK for XP, what I don't know, are they OK for Linus.
Also, which Linux OS would be recomended?

21 Apr 11

That hardware should be fine (a quick googling suggests that anyway).

I would recommend you try Fedora or Ubuntu just b/c they are so user-friendly and you'll have a lot of community support with them (my personal choice is Fedora but whatever). They are both very friendly to dual-boot scenarios, too. Honestly, most Linux distros these days are dual-boot friendly.

I would also recommend trying the "Live CD/DVD" approach first, to see if the Linux distro you choose works best for you (are all hardware devices working properly, etc.). Then when you're happy, you can actually install it.

Good luck!

-bill

21 Apr 11

For a Linux beginner, I would stay away from Fedora for now. The impending release of F15 is causing some problems with Beta releases, and, there is a big difference between what F14 offers and what F15 will look like, with the coming of Gnome3. I would look at Mint or Ubuntu. BTW - your hardware is more than adequate for Linux.
If your going to use Windows XP, that should be installed first, since, windows tends to overwrite anything else on the hard disk. Linux can be put on second, and it will recognize Windows XP and make an entry in the bootloader for it.

If you have anymore questions as you think about your setup, please ask.

21 Apr 11

I think there is no problem with the hardware, test some Live CD/DVD to see what distribution you like and what works. It's always good to choose on of the major ones: http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major

21 Apr 11

Your listed hardware should have no issues with any Linux based OS. The components that suffer the most compatibility problems are wifi cards and video card (ATI cards don't perform as well as they should).

The thing you must remember about dual booting with windows is that windows must be installed on the first hard drive and installed first, windows expects to be the first OS and throws fits if it is not, also if it is installed second it will blow the bootloader from the other OS off of the computer.