The Larsonist 666 that I helped clayton build contains:
Abit BX133 RAID motherboard
256MB PC133
Celeron 600 running at 900Mhz (pretested off ebay)
2 Maxtor 15GB drives running in RAID0 configuration
Matrox G-400 series AGP video
A couple hard drive fans, good CPU & case fans
300W power supply (try sparkle)
Windows 2000
Gadgetlabs Wave824
That's all I can remember off hand.
Of course gadgetlabs is gone, so I'd recommend something from m-audio such as the Delta series.
This is basically the system I'd build today, except if I had the money I'd replace the overclocked Celeron with a PIII. He got the Celeron off of eBay...somebody was selling them PRETESTED. You really must buy pretested if you plan to overclock.
An Intel chipset is a REQUIREMENT for a good DAW. Don't rely on luck just to save yourself a few bucks, or to get a few neat features that you don't need. The most stable intel chipset is still a modified BX which several companies are still selling (Abit for one)....however, I think most of the kinks with the i8xx series are going away and it should be workable.
Get your memory from crucial.com ... get a stick of 256MB PC133 CAS2 unbuffered non-ECC and it'll keep you going for a very long time. If you don't want to order from crucial (free shipping hey!), then stick with name brand shit like Viking, PNY, Simple, and so on. I recommend CAS2 (CL2)...even though it doesn't provide much of a performance gain, this faster memory is of better construction. If you can afford it, look into CAS2 buffered (registered) ECC, especially if you plan to add 512MB or more at some point.
Do not purchase an IBM hard drive if you get anything with a Highpoint controller (abit motherboards). There is a serious incompatibility that is very difficult to track down (data corruption once every several months in my case). Lots of people blame Highpoint, I blame IBM. I actually spotted this trend several months before it became a well-known fact. (hooray for me)
Consider a motherboard with a built in ATA/66 or ATA/100 controller like the Abit boards....or purchase a controller from somebody like Promise (promise.com). The big reason for this is to add IDE channels.
As far as CDROM drives go...get something decent like a Memorex 40X+ drive...don't get some total off-brand clanker, you'd be suprised at how frustrating a bad CDROM drive can be, even when you're not using it. For CDRW I totally recommend Yamaha and Sony, and both make nice entry level burners.... $170 or so for 8x8x32. If you were smart and got a secondary IDE controller (ATA/66, ATA/100), then you'll have your hard drive(s) on this controller, and you should stick your CDROM on the standard motherboard controller as master on the first port, and your CDRW as master on the second port. This will provide optimal performance. Do not put a CDRW drive on a fancy ATA controller...put it on the standard Intel controller that's on the motherboard for best compatibility.
Maxtor hard drives are great. I mentioned RAID above. RAID0 (there are many types of RAID) allows you to "stripe" data between two hard drives. Basically, you see both hard drives as one large volume, but some bits of data are put on one hard drive, and some bits are written to the second hard drive (all behind the scenes). Effectively, this allows for transfer rates 1.5 to 2X faster (I've seen them as high as 38-40MB/sec). The downside is that if one drive fails, you're el screwdo. But you should be backing up anyways! I won't confuse you any more with this topic, if you're truely interested, do some research.
The last critical component I'll mention is the power supply. Bad power supplies are responsible for all sorts of kookie problems that are hard to trace. Get a 300W power supply! Even though you don't need it, the idea is that a power supply operates better the farther away it is from its rated maximum delivery. Sparkle power supplies are nice & heavy and I recommend them.
While you're at it, treat yourself to a nice USB optical mouse, and a Microsoft natural keyboard.
Use pricewatch.com as a guide, but always look for the same components locally, or at the bigger online super stores. I've been screwed by a couple of the pricewatch.com companies, which are tiny little bastards.
Slackmaster 2000
