While my trusty old (2001) Micron is still good for email & surfing, it just could not handle Visual Studio 2005 + SQL + IIS. So it was time to get something new. Of course I wanted fast, cheap, quite and small. I went to a local computer store that does custom systems, and they were willing to hook me up with a loud, tower, mid-range box for ~ $1000. Of course for a couple of hundred more, it could be quiter, with a better CPU… Ummmm. no.
Enter TigerDirect.com – Long story short, I hooked up a Shuttle XPC, with an AMD Athlon 64 (3700), 1GB of 3700 DDR Ram, 160GM of disk, card reader, DVD+-R/RW/CD-R/RW, 128Mb ATI something card for ~$700. And it’s quite (can barely hear it when there is no other sound in the room), small (8″ high, 8″ wide, 12″ deep), and for the price – really fast.
I had been hesitant about going the total DIY route, but I just could not stomach spending about $600 more just to have someone set it up. So, if you are considering building their own box (and saving a bunch of cash), I highly recommend doing it. The only thing that was at all complex was determining how much power the system would need. Handily, digg had a link to a really cool power calculator. Just select the parts you’re going to be running, and it will tell you what size power supply you’ll need.
Actual assembly is trivial compared to setting up a home theater system. From opening the boxes to logging into XP it took less than 2 hours.
Now to update my site to .NET 2.0!
