Remember the olden days of hertzes and bytes? Now it's giga-everything. Paul Ferrill takes advantage of low hardware prices to build a super-duper high-power Linux workstation for cheap. How cheap? $1000? $500?

Today's low-end PC hardware is like the supercomputers of yesteryear, and yet it can feel like you're still struggling with an old 386. Akkana Peck shows how to use the ps and top commands to find CPU and memory hogs on your Linux computer.

Windows and Apple rely on endless upgrade cycles to keep the money flowing. Linux, on the other hand, is much more considerate of the planet and our finances. Eric Geier has five excellent ideas for giving new life to old PCs with Linux.