Originally Posted by Why

i dont think you need a raid unless your running more then 4 processors. they cant encode faster then a SATA2 or SAS drive can write(SAS is 3GB per second)

if your only going to build 2 machines, id get 8 core machines. as processing power is your greatest bottle neck.

video card is pretty much not important because the encoding is NOT done on the video card.

if your doing WMV encodes, make sure your software can use more then one processor. otherwise getting more then one is useless. WME doesnt know how to use more then one CPU.

ram is important but you cant use more then 3GB in XP, so dont bother getting any more then that.

we have 50+ cores in our office doing encoding 24/7, our systems can encode for weeks and weeks without being touched, its incredible. we use Rhozet software for encoding. As Brad said... Mac's are nice but retardedly expensive in comparison.