But your pride in building custom rigs aside for a second... let us look at two top-notch corporate machines... you decide which is better. Don't look at the price, though I have posted it.
VoodooPC Rage for $10,839
Motherboard: ASUS K8N-DL Dual Opteron nForce4 Pro 2200
Power Supply: Voodoo Stealth 650 Watt Modular Silent Power Supply
CPU 1: AMD Opteron Processor Dual Core Model 275
CPU 2: AMD Opteron Processor Dual Core Model 275
CPU Cooling: Voodoo RAGE Twin Turbo Intercooler
RAM: 8 GB NUMA Compliant Memory Kit
SATA Raid Controller
Hard Drive 1: 74 GB 10000 RPM
Hard Drive 2: 74 GB 10000 RPM
Hard Drive 3: 500 GB 7200 RPM
6-in-1 Card Reader
Optical Drive 1: Dual Layer 16X DVD+-RW
Optical Drive 2: Dual Layer 16X DVD+-RW
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX 512 MB
Sound Card: Creative Labs X-Fi Elite Pro
Chassis Ports:
1 x 8 Channel Audio
1 x RJ45 LAN Jack
4 x Back USB 2.0 Ports
2 x Front USB 2.0 Ports
2 x PS/2 Port
1 x Back FireWire Port
1 x Front FireWire Port
1 x Parallel Port
1 x Serial Port
Alienware MJ-12 7550a for $10,089
Motherboard: Tyan® Thunder K8WE Motherboard w/ SLI Support
Power Supply: Enermax EG851AX-VH 660 Watt Power Supply
Dual Processor: Dual AMD Opteron 280 2.4 GHz 64-bit w/ Dual Core Technology
CPU Cooling: Liquid Cooling
RAM: 4 GB NUMA Compliant Memory Kit
Hard Drive 1: 148 GB 10,000 RPM at Raid0
Hard Drive 2: 500 GB 7200 RPM at Raid1
Hot Swap
10-in-1 Card Reader
Optical Drive 1: Dual Layer 16X DVD+-RW w/ Lightscribe
Optical Drive 2: Dual Layer 16X DVD+-RW w/ Lightscribe
Video Card: Dual NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 PCI-E 512MB DDR3 w/ SLI
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic High Definition 7.1 Surround Sound
Chassis Ports:
Serial: One 9-pin serial port
Parallel: None
Video: One 15-pin VGA port / one 24-pin DVI port
Two 24-pin DVI ports (optional)*
Keyboard: One 6-pin mini-DIN port
Mouse: One 6-pin mini-DIN port
IEEE 1394: Up to Two IEEE 1394 ports - 1 Internal/ 1 External*
USB: Up to Eight USB 2.0 ports - 4 Internal / 4 External*
Audio: Three 1/8" analog jacks
Ethernet: Full Duplex Dual Gigabit Ethernet
Which is better? Voodoo or Alienware, in this case?
EDIT: In the Voodoo description, there is CPU 1 and CPU 2. I have assumed that this is the same as Alienware's wording of "Single Processor" and "Dual Processor".
VoodooPC Rage for $10,839
Motherboard: ASUS K8N-DL Dual Opteron nForce4 Pro 2200
Power Supply: Voodoo Stealth 650 Watt Modular Silent Power Supply
CPU 1: AMD Opteron Processor Dual Core Model 275
CPU 2: AMD Opteron Processor Dual Core Model 275
CPU Cooling: Voodoo RAGE Twin Turbo Intercooler
RAM: 8 GB NUMA Compliant Memory Kit
SATA Raid Controller
Hard Drive 1: 74 GB 10000 RPM
Hard Drive 2: 74 GB 10000 RPM
Hard Drive 3: 500 GB 7200 RPM
6-in-1 Card Reader
Optical Drive 1: Dual Layer 16X DVD+-RW
Optical Drive 2: Dual Layer 16X DVD+-RW
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX 512 MB
Sound Card: Creative Labs X-Fi Elite Pro
Chassis Ports:
1 x 8 Channel Audio
1 x RJ45 LAN Jack
4 x Back USB 2.0 Ports
2 x Front USB 2.0 Ports
2 x PS/2 Port
1 x Back FireWire Port
1 x Front FireWire Port
1 x Parallel Port
1 x Serial Port
Alienware MJ-12 7550a for $10,089
Motherboard: Tyan® Thunder K8WE Motherboard w/ SLI Support
Power Supply: Enermax EG851AX-VH 660 Watt Power Supply
Dual Processor: Dual AMD Opteron 280 2.4 GHz 64-bit w/ Dual Core Technology
CPU Cooling: Liquid Cooling
RAM: 4 GB NUMA Compliant Memory Kit
Hard Drive 1: 148 GB 10,000 RPM at Raid0
Hard Drive 2: 500 GB 7200 RPM at Raid1
Hot Swap
10-in-1 Card Reader
Optical Drive 1: Dual Layer 16X DVD+-RW w/ Lightscribe
Optical Drive 2: Dual Layer 16X DVD+-RW w/ Lightscribe
Video Card: Dual NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 PCI-E 512MB DDR3 w/ SLI
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic High Definition 7.1 Surround Sound
Chassis Ports:
Serial: One 9-pin serial port
Parallel: None
Video: One 15-pin VGA port / one 24-pin DVI port
Two 24-pin DVI ports (optional)*
Keyboard: One 6-pin mini-DIN port
Mouse: One 6-pin mini-DIN port
IEEE 1394: Up to Two IEEE 1394 ports - 1 Internal/ 1 External*
USB: Up to Eight USB 2.0 ports - 4 Internal / 4 External*
Audio: Three 1/8" analog jacks
Ethernet: Full Duplex Dual Gigabit Ethernet
Which is better? Voodoo or Alienware, in this case?
EDIT: In the Voodoo description, there is CPU 1 and CPU 2. I have assumed that this is the same as Alienware's wording of "Single Processor" and "Dual Processor".