Jim has been very helpful to me as well. I am deeply grateful.
 
Jim talked me down from the original amount I was planning to spend.
 
He gave me support when I modified the machine in ways that hurt the performance. He was always professional and helpful.
 
Mine isn't a Christmas eve story, but it has an equally happy ending.

I can't begin to describe how happy I am with the Machine Jim built for me. I remember turning it on the first time and I did not hear anything, I was panicking because I needed to get a machine back in service. Then, I realized that the lights were on and windows was already up on the monitors.
 
The machine is so quiet that I could not hear it actually turn on like my old machine. When he says 'Whisper Quiet' believe it. He is Great to work with and has a special ability for listening and then giving a solid honest answer.
 
I don't think you could go wrong purchasing a machine from Jim and, as a bonus, you get a bunch of the really good bubble wrap to pop. 
 
Next time I need a Machine I already know who to call.

I still have one from Jim built in 2009. Yep, it's getting old, but I no real reason to upgrade. I've added a SSD drive along with adding RAM and a stronger video card over the last 6 years. It's still purring and running strong. I've joked with Jim over the years that his machines are too good for his business. I will get the next one from him as well. BTW: He also supports my client's in our integrator business with specialty daws as well. They sing the praises of their machines when I speak with them. It's usually the same story, they can't hear it and are amazed at the power. 

Noel Borthwick [Cakewalk]

sharke
I don't think that's characteristic of Jim though - the times I've called for help I've always heard back from him pretty quick and he always seemed to spend as long as it took on the phone to get the issue sorted. You can tell the guy has a LOT of DAW building experience and truly wants you to get the best advice (even if it means a smaller sale for himself). I think I ended up buying higher specs than he recommended in some cases.

Here's an interesting story. I ordered my system in December and it arrived on the 24'th via Fedex. Extremely well packed and secure. I was so sure all was ok so I set up the system under my Omnirax desk and wired everything up. Pressed the power button and nothing - no fans spinning up lights or anything. Checked the power cable and different outlets and nothing. I was pretty bummed since I wanted to set it up over the holidays.
So I opened the machine and was surprised to see how neat his cabling and work was. I could barely see any wires besides the main cable from the PS. The thing looked like a spaceship with the watercooling system and pipes :)
Anyway I tried pushing down the main power connector and made sure the video card etc was seated ok. Everything looked pretty solid so I tried again powering on this time with the case open. Again nothing no lights or anything. Damn...  So I decided to call Jim. Its Christmas eve so I didn't expect anyone to be there. Left a voicemail for him. A few minutes later I got a callback and he was very apologetic and asked me to try a few things. We did all the usual tricks of reseating connectors etc but nothing seemed to help. On powering on all I would hear was a faint click and thats it.
Then we decided to do a skype call so he could look at the PC remotely. So I held the cam so he could take a look at the inside and advise me what to do. After about 45 minutes of trying everything we came to the conclusion that it was possibly the Power supply that was bad. So he offered to the choice to ship him back the machine, ship me a new PS or reimburse me for the cost of a new one if I could buy it locally. 
 
I started looking into where I could get a PS on Christmas eve, and I happened to come across a great article on power supply troubleshooting which showed how you could test it with a fan. While investigating that I began disconnecting some of the connectors from the PS. With most of them disconnected, for kicks I turned on the computer again. To my surprise the PC turned on and fans started and lights on MOBO all activated. Whoa! So I turned it off again and started reconnecting the PS connectors one by one and powering on again.
It all worked until I put back one of the connectors when the system went dead again!
 
So I called Jim back with this info and we had another debugging session. Trying to trace that connector. Was hard for me to spot since his cable management was so neat :) Anyway it turned out to be connected to the SSD. I pulled out the SSD power cable and reseated it again and this time everything worked and the system booted up just fine! So it was a faulty connection to the SSD that was somehow causing the PS to not turn on. I guess these newer PS's have some sort of short circuit protection. Somehow in transit via Fedex it must have gotten loose - no fault of Jim's of course.
 
Anyway I was super impressed with his professionalism and desire to help even on a holiday. He spent a good hour and a half troubleshooting this with me. Attached is a pic of my cat inspecting the machine :)
 

Oh there is nothing worse than buying something new and powering up and getting nothing....glad you got it sorted quickly though. You never know what's going to happen to something in transit. I too was very impressed at how neat and tidy everything was inside when I opened it up to put a couple of extra drives in. Mind I was coming from a Dell which was a train wreck inside...

SilkTone
Yea at this point I'm leaning towards the Studio Cat system. The only thing (and this might seem nitpicky) is that I need the dimensions of the tower since it will go into an enclosure specifically built to house the DAW and reduce noise. Even more nitpicky, it should not have vents on the sides since the enclosure will cover them up. With the previous computer that I built I solved that problem by just re-using the previous previous system's case, which the enclosure was originally built for.
 
I'm just waiting for a reply now with the case dimensions.

 
Hi Silk Tone,
Check your Email...   ;)
 
Thanks for the kind words folks.  

I have a Sweetwater Creation Station and it's working out really well for me.  I have a two space model, a Focusrite 40 audio interface and a Furman power conditioner in a 4 space rack.  It's totally portable.  I use it in the studio, take it to gigs, and do remote recording sessions with it.  Portability was really important to me, and even though it's a little bigger and heavier than a laptop, it's really nice to have the whole thing in a rack, because it's really easy to set up and is all contained in one nice package.  It has enough under the hood to meet my needs, too.  I just love it.
 
edit to add that I have to take along a 24 inch tv along as a monitor when I'm out of the studio. 
 
edited again to acknowledge the OP was asking about Desktop systems...    sorry, bout that. 
 

I ended up ordering a nicely loaded system for $2089 (inc shipping) from Jim:
 
Pro Studio DAW
   - Case: Silent Mid Tower
   - Power-Supply: 600w quiet
   - Haswell CPU: 4790k @ 4.4GHz (8 threads)
   - RAM: 32GB DDR3/1600
   - OS drive: 500GB SSD
   - Audio drive: 3TB HD
   - Burner: 24x DVD/RW
   - Video: GTX-960 (2GB, 4 monitors)
   - Operating System: Windows 8 x64
 
This system should last me a few years
 
Jim was very helpful in answering my questions, thanks Jim!

SilkTone
I just priced a customized ADK system and it came to exactly $2000.00, lol. Anyone have experience with those?
 
I'll also check out the other suggestions, thanks for those.

I bought an ADK computer (see specs below) and have had very good luck with it. The support is second to none.
 
Walt

SilkTone
I just priced a customized ADK system and it came to exactly $2000.00, lol. Anyone have experience with those?
 
I'll also check out the other suggestions, thanks for those.

I stopped in here because I'm due for a new DAW and am researching things but would like to comment on Silk Tone's post. 
 
My current DAW I purchased from ADK seven years ago. Their lifetime tech support is incredible. I am not a computer tech myself but with their tech support I have diagnosed and repaired all problems myself as they talked me through them. There have been many over the last 7 years.
 
So far I have replaced:
Power Supply
Motherboard
Fans
Memory
Hard Drive
Video Card
Optical Drive
 
I don't know a lot about computers and it seems like I've had to replace most of the major elements in mine however I push my DAW hard so I don't think it's unusual for these things to eventually burn out and need replacing. My current machine from ADK has lasted far longer than any previous ones, which were all HP computers. As I mentioned before ADK tech support is incredible and they truly do honor their lifetime tech support claim. I think 7 years is a pretty good run for a DAW but only possible because they walked me through the diagnosing and repair.
 
I would buy from them again but of course I'm shopping around in an attempt to find a better deal. My only concern is that other companies may not offer the same great tech support as ADK has supplied to me.
 
I'm glad someone started this thread because I was going to ask the same questions.
 
Pete

Just my 2 cents.... I have bought my last 2 DAWs from ADK.  From frequenting the CW forums, I kept hearing stuff about some guy Jim Rosenburg or something.... so I googled him and found out his name was really Jim Roseberry (sorry about that Jimbo).  Anyway, there is a new Platinum system in route to me here in NC (we got snow today so nothing).  Should be here tomorrow.  Based on all the good press, I expect nothing but perfection or at least, professional follow up.
 
I think ADK is fantastic too, I just wanted to try another avenue for this build. 
 
Jim