SOHO computing - hardware

Actual hardware recommendations:

We are currently recommending, for reasons of stability, reliability and performance that your main boxes use either a dual AMD Opteron or dual Intel Xeon mobo (in geek talk mobo = motherboard). Although not all such use registered ECC RAM we are only recommending those that do. Our own experience with the Asus SK8N mobo has led us to believe that it is the most stable WindowsXP PC we could have. That particular mobo is no longer available but Asus has some new dual CPU / dual-Core-ready mobos that should be its equal or better. (ECC = error correcting; registered = the signals to/from the RAM are held (latched)*).

With Dual mobos you do not need to populate both CPU sockets which allows for an easy upgrade later - just add that extra CPU when the prices drop. The current crop of Opterons has an additional advantage - they are available as dual core CPUs and if you pick the right mobo you will be able to upgrade via that path as well.