system_in php,password/login system in php

Checks if user exists in database, if it does then retrieve the salt for that user hash the password and salt (would this be done on the client or server side? I think client side would be better, but php is server side so how would you do this?)

The important thing to remember is that you never ever trust the user which means where authentication is concerned you should do as much as possible on the server side. Give the user as little information as possible and don't trust them with anything.

In regards to your question, the obvious point is that there is far more data transfer involved if you let the user precompute the hash. Rather than the single request and response there are 3 requests and responses required. It also increases the requirements from a browser to a browser with JavaScript enabled. Depending on your audience a lot of users can have JavaScript disabled (usually via the NoScript plugin).

Regarding security, while allowing the the user to see the salt wouldn't effect the defense against rainbow tables, showing them how you combine the salt and the password does.

Brute force attempts through the web interface are not that much of an issue anyway as hopefully you would only allow 5 (or so) login attempts per username per hour. Knowing the salt and hashing algorithm doesn't help at all (It just reduces your sever load ;) ). However if they have the database and know how to combine the salt and the hash it becomes that much easier to do a brute force attack.

While security through obscurity is no real defence, it does make your system that much harder to break, so I would reccomend that you don't attempt to do hashing on the client side.