Bought a new LSI MegaRaid 6-port SATA adapter last night, now I just need to build a machine around it¹.

The only slight downside is that the SATA adapter requires a 64-bit bus, which is going to make the rest of the box slightly more pricey than I’d have liked. Oh well, I guess it’s about time I bit the bullet and made a decent box anyway…

Hell, if I go far enough, I may be able to consolidate the domain controller, SQL 2005 (which would, eventually move into a VM), and the Virtual Server 2005 R2 boxes. If they were able to run on some (probably dual-Xeon) box together, I’d have quite a bit of extra hardware laying around to play with.

This is really the part I hate. Now I’ve got to piece together parts from all across the ‘net, looking for the best performance yet the best deal, while trying to balance the desire to get everything from one retailer.

If you’ve got any particular recommendations on where I should head with this project, feel free to chime in. I’m always open to the opinions of greater nerds who watch hardware performance tests like the true geeks they are…

1. Sure, some would say I’m building in the wrong direction, but nerts to them! ↩