What Friday night/Sabbath online assembly are you referring to? I might be interested in that myself!
As for building a computer, have you done that before? If not, are you ready and willing to put in the time and effort to research and learn? Having worked as a technician for many years, I can tell you that one of our favorite sayings was, "Just because they CAN build a computer doesn't mean that they SHOULD." Chipped or otherwise damaged CPUs were common occurrences; compatibility issues between mainboards and memory were also not unusual.
If you can do it, and you know how to do your research, great! Have fun!
If you do NOT how to do it, you can still get it done fairly easily IF - and it's a really huge IF - you take the time to do your research.
http://www.tomshardware.com has step by step procedures as well as recommendations for hardware.
I'm not trying to throw you off here, but I do want you to know what you're getting yourself into when you decide to build your own computer. If, like I said, you know what you're doing, all is well. If you don't, but you're ready to seriously learn, then learn how before you begin. And don't shy away from Linux just because it isn't Windows or OS-X.
Live long and perspire! Er ... prosper!
Richard