ORIGINAL: MysticMizer

Wow, that's pretty impressive....
After seeing that I'm more sure than ever that I'm going to go with one of the Cakewalk recco's. That system looks like it's gonna run you over 3G's....a bit out of my price league.

I have learned an expensive lesson about cheating on the Daw, trying to make it an all in wonder unit....never became more painfully apparent than earlier today when I ran my air conditioner, and discovered to my horror that the computer noise drowned it out completely.

Appreciate the feedback...I'll check in again and see how it's runnin for ya.

Mystic -- actually, it's costing me way less than that.
As best I recall:
Motherboard, CPU and RAM are a little under $800, from Monarch (motherboard/CPU are preassembled, tested, burned in. I could save $40 or so if I ordered parts elsewhere, but the test/burnin is worth it to me).
Power supply is about $90. Heatsink/fan is about $50.
The two SpinPoint driver total about $175.
Win XP license is about $90, with shipping (I'm getting a legal OEM license sold through a clearance house)
The 1212M is costing about $175, with shipping, from Page Computer.

So..hmm.. that totals $1380. It should last me 2-3 years as my main DAW, with a few upgrades along the way.

I already have the Matrox video card, 200G Seagate drive, Antec case, and the external 160G USB 2.0/Firewire drive.
That would add maybe $400 (excluding the external HD) if I had to buy them now.

Good thing my spouse is understanding ....

- Jim