Although I don't visit the site regularly, the Ziff Davis editors and test lab guys frequently get assigned to play with configuring home-built PCs to meet whatever the boss guy is interested in at the moment. Links to the latest miracles appear occasionally in a newsletter I get, so I've looked in occasionally. I haven't had the urge to build one of these … yet, but the descriptions of what decisions were made, and why, have been helpful in rounding out my awareness of what kinds of equipment are available. You don't have to agree with their opinions to get help firming up your own.
Of course there are lots of DIY sources, but these guys sort of speak my language - which makes it easier (for me) to steal ideas from them.
A starting point: The Midrange PC, By Loyd Case, March 25, 2003:
"The sweet spot for PC price/performance these days is right around $1200. For that amount of money, you can build a system with pretty serious CPU and graphics horsepower. You do have to make a few compromises, but it's surprising what you can do for about $1,200."
You may have to jump around a bit to get the whole story; but here's the:
Table of Contents: Introduction Systems Configurations Processor Motherboard Memory, Case, Power Supply, and Graphics Storage Keyboard and Mouse Monitor Ethernet Support, Audio, and Speakers Performance 3D Rendering Tests Media Encoding and Authoring FutureMark Synthetic Tests Direct3D Gaming Tests OpenGL Gaming Tests Analysis and Conclusion
TOC sections are links in the article, so you can jump to whichever one interests you. Other articles generally have similar layout.
Sidebar links at the same page lead to similar articles:
A DIY Gaming PC for Under $1000 Killer Rigs Shootout Build It: A Killer System for $800 Build It: Configuring a $1200 Speed Demon
Not in the sidebar, but fairly recently reported: Build a Digital Audio Workstation April 9, 2004. I think this is more of a "home theater controller" than a "sound mastering system," but may be of some interest.
These articles generally run as a "series," sometimes for several months. I think the last one above is the third in the series for that design. It has links to the earlier ones, but you sometimes have to dig for the final installments.
I believe there was a fairly recent one on case selection that had some good links to sources, for when you want something a little off the beaten path. It seems I didn't make notes on that article though.
One of the most recent citations in my newsletter was to how they built a portable system so Joe could take his new n-ty inch flat panel with him when his friends insist on having the tailgate party somewhere besides his house; but I don't have a link handy. Maybe could dig it out later. It could save him a lot of brew if he's having to bribe them to come over for the games.