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motherboard & hardware recommendations

Hello,

My PC died on me last night and I'm looking to build a new PC (high performance development workstation). I've got the OS software and several hard drives that I'll put into the PC, but what recommendations for motherboards, chassis, processor, memory, power supply, graphics and sound cards are a good solid configuration and is listed on Microsofts approved Hardware list.

I live in the Austin, Texas area. Are there any recommended stores to go and buy the components?

Thanks for any suggestions.

Regards,
-D-

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Callandor

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-Dman100-

ASKER

Hi Callandor,

Thanks for the information. What was the approximate cost for the components you mentioned?

Regards,
-D-

willcomp

What's your budget?

I'll start with the case. Will need a roomy case with plenty of hard disk bays. These are some I really like. Have 120mm exhaust fans (quiet), plenty of expansion room, and good cooling. They are all easy to work with for assembly.

http://www.directron.com/tx1088amg.html Antec SOHO Server
http://www.directron.com/sonata.html Antec Sonata
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811119076 CoolerMaster Centurion
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811119075 Coolermaster Cavalier

After I have a better idea of what you're looking for, may add some more.

willcomp

Callandor got in some good stuff while I was preparing response above (I get frequently interrupted). Directron is located in Houston, so shipping will be reasonable.

Callandor

chaswood99

Like Callandor's configuration with one exception. Most of the benchmarks show that RAID 0 on the desktop doesn't give you much. From an article on Anandtech by Anand Lal Shimpi:

"If you haven't gotten the hint by now, we'll spell it out for you: there is no place, and no need for a RAID-0 array on a desktop computer. The real world performance increases are negligible at best and the reduction in reliability, thanks to a halving of the mean time between failure, makes RAID-0 far from worth it on the desktop."

Here's the link to the article ("Western Digital's Raptors in RAID-0: Are two drives better than one?"):

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=2101

Also agree that Newegg is a cut above when it comes to customer service, yet still competitive pricewise.

motherboard &amp; hardware recommendations

motherboard & hardware recommendations