Build a quad-core, 8-gig server for $900

I always keep an eye on the Arstechnica.com hardware guides. If I'm ever building a server I'll probably just get whatever they put in their hotrod minus the fast video card and double the ram. Or just keep the video card and play HL2 while I serve pages :)<p>Its amazing what you can put together for &#60;$1000 these days. I'm sure I'll be saying that every year hence forth, but it never ceases to amaze me.

That's not what I'd call a server. Not even ECC RAM.

Is this is a total ripoff of Scott Hanselman and Jeff Atwood's post, "Build the Ultimate Developer Rig" (<a href="http://www.hanselman.com/blog/TheCodingHorrorUltimateDeveloperRigThrowdownPart2.aspx" rel="nofollow">http://www.hanselman.com/blog/TheCodingHorrorUltimateDevelop...</a>), or did he pick almost the identical components by himself? Maybe he did pick this all by himself but I find it suspect at least that there are so many similarities. He's passing it off as original content but I don't know...

For another US$700 you could buy a cheap RAID card and another six disks. That would quadruple the storage and only cost a total of US$1600.

I can't believe the tiny CPU fan. Maybe there have been some technological advances since I last assembled my own system.

Build a quad-core, 8-gig server for $900*<p>*bandwidth not included. good luck colo'ing that bad boy.

Eh...you can build something as good and cheaper than this if you carefully monitor Fry's ads.