I have had very good luck buying Shuttle chassis and building my own. Their cooling system is unique, very effective and VERY quiet (I didn't really need to shout). My 5-year old system (it was SOA at the time) is still viable and silent...now on X3c. I have always run two internal and one external drive. I use the built in Firewire for my Saffire PRO 40. As a bonus it came with built-in 7.1 sound (5 years ago) that I use for monitoring the very occasional video work that I do (with Premiere and SONAR soundtracks). My current is an SG31G2. The builds were simple and seamless...the current one has seen Windows2000 --> XP --> Win7. 
 
I, too, have never had real complaints about Microsoft since Win3.1. On the other hand, I have never been able to get my iPad to connect to my house server (Linux Server) and have to transfer files with Box.net through the cloud. Apple stuff is OK if you don't contaminate your life with anything that they didn't make...

Saffires rock! Focusrite make the best interfaces. And from the UK so what do you expect.

CakeAlexS
If you are talking about heavy duty that is a whole other subject. If you are talking about clustering multiple PC's together that's another.

I'm not talking about taking machines out on the road that need to be rugged. I suspect you are not using Sonar and you are probably using Pro Tools/lighting/video editing software (it would be fascinating to hear if you are using Sonar in this environment). The environment you are talking about is similar to how a server environment would be it seems, or power desktop, that's just overkill for most scenarios. If you are slaving and or clustering/networking machines that's probably because you are using it for video and perhaps lighting as well, again a totally different conversation. Nobody here is slaving machines for recording in Sonar.
 
I'm talking about desktop recording.  I notice that most of the conversation here is really to do with home recording. My experience is with professional recording studios but I have a home environment as well to manage. There isn't that much difference nowadays I notice.
 
You are not comparing eggs with eggs. I could start a server conversation if you like, I've got two of them upstairs. Wanna talk about SSL computers?

I have slaves because I use very large templates. If you aren't familiar with Vienna Ensemble Pro, it's a Godsend for composers who use a ton of VI's. In a nutshell, your "master" computer runs the DAW. The slave machine(s) host the Virtual Instruments, thus utilizing the slave for all the VI processing. It even allows you to use all of your 32bit plugs in a 64bit DAW without having to worry about BitBridge, JBridge, etc. Everything is connected via a simple Ethernet cable and Gigabit Ethernet ports (you don't even need a soundcard on the slave). The best part is, I can keep huge templates open all the time, without having to reload everything for a new cue. In a film with over 100 cues, it's a real time saver. I ran it like this for a long time with Sonar X1 and X2 as the DAW. VEPro is compatible with any major DAW. I now use Cubase 7 because I needed to video features; if X3d has similar improvements, I'll gladly switch back! Right now, my master is a MacBook pro, and the slaves are PC's. Pro Tools comes into play when I format and deliver the cues to the editors, that is it. For a slave machine, one might have some luck but mine are custom built because I need the abilty to upgrade the Ram and slide min a few SAATA III SSD's (most consumer systems max out at 16GB). When I run 200+ track counts, I can easily gobble up over 64GB Ram.
 
Check it out, it is a great tool.....especially for film composers http://www.viennaensemblepro.com/
 
It works GREAT with Sonar.

Definitely - sounds interesting...

I have just received my Dell XPS 15 2014 Platinum Ultrabook.
Haswell Quadcore, 16GB RAM, 2GB Gerforce Graphic, 3200x1800 touch screen (take that retina), 512 GB SSD, Windows 8.1 huge 91WH battery.
 
Wow. What a beast. I don't think it takes more than 5s too boot.
 
I just installed Sonar X3, plugged the notebook to my Roland Quad-Capture Audio Interface, loaded the 1.13 GB Javier Colon & Jummy Landry demo project.
Everything plays perfect, I can finally hear music on my Adam monitors noise free as the XPS is silent whereas my Desktop wasn't.
 
I'm looking forward to test the touch integration of Sonar X3, although I remember that I saw a video on YouTube showing that other Daws with 0 support for touch in some cases were much more useable with touch. I hope this will be an area of intense focus for the Cakewalk Dev Team.
 
Anyway, if you have any questions don't hesitate.
 

Someone mentioned something about Sonar running better with amd chips vs intel. Any truths or comments?  I run mad plugs, including wave bundle, maschine, komplete, and additional soft synths along with mbox pro 3rd gen.  I need to buy a computer that will work well with what I have.

I used AMD once and had a bad experience, but that was 12 years ago. I've always stuck with Intel since. My view is that software testing is more likely to happen with Intel Chips than AMD. Of course others will have a different opinion. I do have an AMD box as a dedicated media station through and it runs just fine but I don't push it that hard.

20 Grand
Someone mentioned something about Sonar running better with amd chips vs intel. Any truths or comments?

No, SONAR runs fine on either, however; most of the comments on this forum I have read from DAW builders and CW developers, when they express a preference, usually recommend Intel processors.

20 Grand
Someone mentioned something about Sonar running better with amd chips vs intel. Any truths or comments?  I run mad plugs, including wave bundle, maschine, komplete, and additional soft synths along with mbox pro 3rd gen.  I need to buy a computer that will work well with what I have.

My computer is an AMD machine and Sonar runs fine on it. I have no issues. However I remember reading somewhere about cakewalk recommending Intel due to hyper-threading and a they compared the performance of both machines side by side. I can't remember where I read that thread.
 
Even though I have no issues and everything is fine. If I had to do it over again I would build my own system and use an i7 processor.

ok...so it seems like Intel is the way to go...Just need some recommendations in the $800-1000 price range with as much bang for the buck and where to buy it from.