I would recommend gentoo. Although it is often considered to be beyond a newbie's capability, as a newbie myself, I think it actually the best newbie distro available. You can install exactly what you want to install; the documentation is as good as it gets and the community is the most helpful to newbies that I have ever seen. Also, there are very easy to follow tutorials to do exactly what you want to do in the gentoo forums. Check out www.gentoo.org I don't think you will be disappointed.