Some quick hints:
- All computer manufacturer support sucks unless you buy enterprise-class systems and pay for premium support. Unfortunately, this will double your price.
$$$$$$ = unable
I have paid Dell for Gold/Premium/Pro support and it has been variable from good to sucks worse than no support at all
In general, server-class hardware gets better manufacturer support, and most support XP/Vista/Win7. $$$$$ = unable
I don't like Macs, but support and video production are two areas where they generally excel. $$$$$ = unwilling
You don't have to go with 64-bit Win7 just to be able to use more memory. An old trick is to use Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition, 32-bit, with SP2 can accept up to 64GB RAM and essentially uses the XP Kernal. This eliminates the potential problem of compatibility with 32-bit applications. But some software, notably anti-virus and backup utilities, will refuse to install because the publisher wants to force you to buy the more expensive server versions of these products. Also, with Server, you can have three people working on the system at once (1 on the physical keyboard/screen and two others via Remote Desktop from another desktop/notebook/netbook locally or via the Internet). Unnecessary complications. Win 7 64 works fine, not prefect for sure, but gets the job done. Just me, only me, nobody but me. <g>
RAID-1 reduces performance by requiring two operations for every write, but can slightly improve read performance. Using a hardware RAID controller with on-board memory can offset this performance loss. In my experience, systems with software RAID are more likely to experience failures than systems with no RAID. I'm not sure why this is, but I believe it has something to do with bad software drivers and timing issues.
Always used hardware controller. Using software RAID always seemed like me to be penny wise and pound foolish.
For video editing, RAID-0 is usually preferred because this speeds both read and write performance, at the cost of reduced reliability. RAID-10 is the best balance of reliability and performance but requires at least 4 HDD's, preferably 8, and dedicated RAID controller with memory, so this is a major expense. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ I use RAID 1 as a means to allow me to continue working and get the job done when a HDD fails, usually at the worst possible time on deadline for something critical. Any performance hit is minimal compared to the advantages. Big RAID array would be cool. but way too much $s
SAS (Serial-attached-SCSI) drives will provide much better performance than IDE, but again, are expensive. Plus, for large capacity, even more expensive. 1.5TB drives are close to dirt cheap now. Images and video take up lots of space.
Avoid drives slower than 7500 RPM. Stick with 10K or 15K drives if you can afford them. Again, size and $$$$ constraints. The latest tech 7200 RPM drives seem to be more than adequate for anything I need.
On-Line backup services such as Carbonite offer both data protection plus the extra protection of off-site data storage at very reasonable prices. I use Carbonite for all the computers.
Power supplies are usually the weakest link in most desktops, and could be the cause of your other prior failures. It tested within spec. <shrug>
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