I've been toying with the idea of upgrading my video workstation for a few months now that demand has been a little bit higher for the work that I do with it so as to speed things up a little bit and take advantage of the newer tech available that's a far sight more affordable. My current system will stick around as an encoding box until someone comes along to buy it for the right price (the right price just so happens to be what a new Canopus DV Storm2 bundle cost ). And the new build...

Motherboard: Iwill DH800
CPUs: 2x Intel 64-bit Xeon 3.2 GHz w/800 FSB
Memory: 2GB Mushkin PC3200
Video: not yet decided
PSU: Antec True 550w EPS12V
Boot HDD: WD 74GB Raptor 10krpm SATA
Storage HDD: moved over from the current box
Scratch HDD: 2x IBM Ultrastar 36GB 15krpm U160 SCSI
Sound: onboard or the Guillemot/Hercules card from the current rig
Expansion: Adaptec 39320 SCSI host adapter
Case: Antec P160WF
UPS: Cyberpower 1500AVR
And a few other things repo'd from the current box as I need.

The DH800 is newly released (not yet in the US though) and has almost everything onboard so goodbye PCI cards. I only need the two 64-bit PCI-X slots for the SCSI and the MPEG card when I get it and one of the 32-bit slots for the sound card if I need it. The CPUs are the Noconas to be released Q2 of this year and will be venture into the 64-bit world. The RAM was a no-brainer since the Mushkin I have now is great and I don't need ECC stuff (unbuffered is faster anyway). The PSU is also the same as I've got now (though with the EPS conn.). I'm excited to see what having a 10krpm SATA drive for a boot drive will be like. I've heard they're pretty quiet. 74GB should be enough for the OS and apps since I've got 2x 200GB drives going in for storage and the hotswap bay for the rest of 'em. I decided to go with the bigger IBM SCSI drives since I've taken to installing programs to my Seagates. The old U320 Seagates are getting striped though: hello SCSI RAID. The case won't fit the board, however I'm going to put forth my best effort to shoehorn the board in there. I really like the features of the P160 so I'm willing to give it a go.

Just need to finalize what to do about sound, video, and storage. I like the Hercules sound card but the breakout box is cumbersome sometimes. It does have all the features right there and a USB hub to boot so it may go in the new box. That 5600 Ultra video card is sitting here gathering dust so hopefully that will be the new video card, though I'm looking at workstation cards too (Quadro, Fire, and Matrox). I also want a better solution for my SCSI drives. External enclosures are pretty expensive for what they are but it may be my only option. I'm really looking forward to getting a hardware encoder, though I may put it off and invest in software instead.

Any recommendations or feedback? I'm counting the seconds to the Nocona release this summer 8)