When I first started VSI-thinking we used to build our own computers, partly to keep cost down, partly to get the fastest hardware but mostly because I always enjoyed building my own kit. As the business started to develop and hardware became faster than we actually need for the job, so we quickly resorted to buying pre-built machines. We chose Dell as their reliability and on site support meant there was one less thing to worry about in the office.
I was actually quite pleased when I fried my motherboard recently attempting to overclock the CPU and RAM. Perhaps I should grow up and just buy a faster computer, but then I would have had to re-install all my software and I like my desktop as it is. I am grown up enough, however, to have extensive backups so when I fried the board I just need a new platform and could restore from the day before.
For backups we use Maxtor Network Storage, the Shared Storage II to be precise, which is only the size of a house brick and can backup a small network of PC’s. They are ideal for businesses because they are so cheap, circa. £200.00, so we use two of them on rotation, both set-up in the same way, with one always off site for disaster recovery.
The first item on which to decide was the motherboard and this was easy. Buy a motherboard with a half decent integrated graphic chipset. You can check out the chipsets with sites like techreport.com for detailed specifications. As long as you have a plethora of ports (USB, Firewire, Card Readers) and the front side bus is above 500Mhz, the platform will be fast enough for WinXP along with web developement tools.
Selecting a processor is such a difficult task. There is rarely a time when the processor market pauses for breath. Now is a particularly busy period with Intel’s quad core supremacy being challenged by AMD. Intel look set to hit back early next year so the only advice in buying a processor is fix your price point and buy the best value. The PCPro performance/cost graph illustrates the best processors for a particular price bracket.
When buying RAM it is important that you double check you motherboard / RAM compatibility. A site like ValueRAM is invaluable in establishing the necessary choice of product. Once you have the correct type you simply need to decide on speed. A recent comparison test by PCPro showed very little difference between RAM speeds in benchmark tests. In terms of real world performance you would notice no discernable difference.
Finally you need a fast hard drive. Personally I have no affiliation to any drive manufacturer. Therefore, all you need to know is buy a drive with a spin speed of 7200rpm or above. And that is it, apart from a few hours to assemble the bits and install drivers and download updates. I just wish I had more time to do this more often.