Dies to Removal

I'm just trying to give you my suggestions and advice since you seem to want them; my ultimate goal is to get you to buy cool shit and post pics of it here, in the equipment porn thread.

Okay, so what I'm hearing is that you're looking for a hobby system, something that's as good as you can get to start out with and then play around with as your whims and finances allow? I might suggest you start with a second-hand/wholesale system off of ebay or craigslist or similar. The big advantage of desktops is their almost-infinite ability to be adapted by adding and removing components from simple soundcards to full motherboards; having a baseline that you can look to and imagine where you can take it is an amazingly fun past time.

One thing I would like to suggest, though, is while I'm not sure there are certain hints you're giving that you might be thinking it's cheaper to build a custom system than buy an off-the-shelf one, and this isn't really true... I mean, you can save money but generally not enough to justify the extra time and effort needed if you're just looking for
basic computing needs. I like to think of crafting a new system more like an architecture project than a construction project; the joy comes from (perhaps gradually) building a system that fits your organic needs perfectly, not from saving money.*
*- although I do know a couple of people that get a positively orgasmic thrill out of getting good deals on parts, but from my perspective that's pretty time consuming and more about jizzing your pants over the deal rather than the money you're saving.

I'm nice and will order and assemble the parts for my friends as long as they buy me booze or something.

I'm in the market for one of those Tony Stark hologram rooms. Build me a Jarvis, and I will get you crunkified like you've never been crunked before.

@Kaze: the only problem is that, if you decide you want something other than what you start out with, it can get expensive pretty quick to replace the parts, especially the monitor(s); so you should, bare minimum, think about what kind of monitor setup you want/can afford. One big, high-resolution monitor is optimum for watching/streaming movies, whereas gaming is tending towards several smaller monitors for a more immersive experience and so you can see more of the field; if you just want
to watch hentai or classic gaming or some other similar pursuit, you can usually back off on the picture quality and upgrade the size so you can watch it from that chair nobody else sits in because it smells funny anywhere in the room. Once you've spent some time basically daydreaming what your set up should be, newegg (or like a billion other sites) offer compatibility/optimization tools, as well as walkthroughs and other helpful stuff, and it's pretty easy.

Also maybe spend a little time thinking about what you want the computer to do for you; a gaming rig is going to want a different setup than, say, a pr0n machine or IMV. Budget accordingly.

you have a house but have company over to your rv?

Well, for one, yeah, a lot of the people I invite to my parties are not the types of people I want knowing my permanent street address, .
More seriously, I rent it out for most of the summer season to fishermen/hunters and other outdoor types at egregious profit nowadays. A serendipitous blend of them having changed the local zoning permits, the DNR stocking the local lakes with game fish, and people having more money than smarts.

Funny
story about that, akully, I was going to dump a bunch of money into the place when it went commercial, put in some leather sectionals and get cable, maybe get rid of the stripper pole, but the rental agent I was going through yelled at me for it; turns out that the types of people who want to rent a house just as a base of operations for their fishing/hunting trip don't want amenities, they want "rustic." Not really sure what that says about my lifestyle, but hey, if they want to pay me exorbitant amounts of money for the experience I'm fine with them thinking I'm a few miles back on the road to evolution.

you have a house but have company over to your rv?

Well, for one, yeah, a lot of the people I invite to my parties are not the types of people I want knowing my permanent street address, .
More seriously, I rent it out for most of the summer season to fishermen/hunters and other outdoor types at egregious profit nowadays. A serendipitous blend of them having changed the local zoning permits, the DNR stocking the local lakes with game fish, and people having more money than smarts.

Hey Saph, I need some advice.
I'm doing a bit of remodeling on my camper setup during the winter while it's in storage, and I'm thinking about building a man-cave. See, last season I only had the 1 big-ass Class A (a self-contained RV with it's own engine), and since I would have company over and cook and stuff while still needing to sleep in the thing, I just watched TV on my laptop; now, I've acquired a PUP (pop-up style trailer) to tow behind that I can convert into a personal space. It's kind of old and it's only 6' by 12', but all I'll be using it for is sleeping and nerding out; my main concern is that I'll be very limited on space when I need to pack it down for travel, and any equipment I have in it is going to have to be able to withstand bumps in the road and setting up. It's got hard metal sides, no slide outs, so it looks an awful lot like a winter fishing house when it's all set up.

Right now
what I'm thinking about is putting a bed on one end and using the whole other end for entertainment. I've been looking into rear-projection TVs and I like the idea of just mounting the projector to the ceiling and turning the whole far wall into a giant screen, but I'm concerned that I won't get the clarity I would get from a flat-panel; I'm also a little worried because I've heard tuning the picture to be on-center is a total bitch, and the things can't take the same amount of abuse as a standard television. Considering that they're also more spendy than a normal TV, I'm entirely on the fence about whether it's worth the saving on space and kewl factor.

I'd also be interested to hear your thoughts on what kind of set up I should have for media; I don't really game and I'm not even really sure I'll be able to connect to the internet since I plan on sticking the thing way back in the woods, so mostly I'll be using it to watch movies and listen to music and stuff. My current plan is to
hijack the setup I use at my house, an Xbox 360 with a 2TB external drive, but if your knowledge tells you that there's a better system I'm all ears. More importantly, though, I have this man-dream of this really kick-ass speaker system, in two parts: one set of 3-8 speakers (including subwoofer) for interior sound, nothing that has to be very loud since it's such a small space and I don't need passersby hearing my porn gratuitous anime binge-a-thons oh wait that's the same as porn shows, so I'm aiming for quality over quantity there; and then a pair of frame-mounted monsters that fire to the outside so I can live the dream of having outdoor karaoke.
Oh, and it's going to be running off a 30/50Amp receptacle and I don't generally pay for my own electricity so there shouldn't be any problems with energy consumption.

Any advice would be appreciated, sorry for hijacking your thread if you want feel free to get the mods to split it off.