The Double-Stuff Workstation
Recession? What recession?

In the realm of enthusiast PC hardware, there's good enough, better than good enough, and as good as it gets before becoming a waste of money. Can you guess which category the Double-Stuff Workstation falls into?

Processor
The Core i7-940 is the quiet middle child of the Core i7 line, delivering higher performance than the i7-920 but without the perks of the i7-965 (which include an unlocked upper multiplier). We're cool with paying a $270 premium over the i7-920 for that little extra kick, since after all, this is supposed to be a high-end build. We think that the $710 premium the i7-965 commands is a little too high for our primary config, though.

Motherboard
Similarly, we're not going with the fanciest possible motherboard here. Asus' P6T has three physical PCIe x16 slots (with CrossFire and SLI support), six DDR3 memory slots, and nine SATA ports (including one eSATA port), so it's definitely better equipped than the mobo we picked for the Sweeter Spot. With a price tag of less than $250, though, the P6T isn't too expensive a step up. Well, at least not when your whole computer costs over $2,600.

Memory
Yeah, yeah. 4GB of RAM is probably good enough for most folks, so recommending three times that much might seem a little crazy. However, keep in mind that a second 6GB Corsair kit only raises the full system price by about 4%, and it'll come in handy for folks faced with actual workstation tasks. And hey, who wouldn't enjoy the bragging rights?

Graphics
We established on the previous page that dual GPUs are a requirement for those seeking a significant leap from a single GeForce GTX 260. We could just go with two GTX 260s, but here, our ample budget allows us to spring for more expensive (and faster) GeForce GTX 275s from EVGA. Not only should these two cards provide higher multi-GPU performance, but in games that don't support SLI well, you'll still get a faster single GPU on which to fall back. The only major drawback (aside from the price) is higher power consumption when gaming, since the GTX 275 draws quite a bit more power under load than the GTX 260. Our 850W PSU should have no problem with that, however.

So, why not dual Radeon HD 4890s? We haven't tested the 4890 or GTX 275 in multi-GPU mode, but we've found that a Radeon HD 4870 1GB CrossFire setup doesn't always scale as well from one GPU to two as a pair of GeForce GTX 260 cards in SLI. From that, we can extrapolate that dual GTX 275s should have a notable performance edge over their counterparts with red PCBs.

Storage
You might recall that our prior workstation builds used to include dual 10,000-RPM VelociRaptors. Well, we've traded those for one of Intel's new 80GB X25-M solid-state drives. If you've read our review, you'll be able to guess why. While write performance is nothing to, er, write home about, the X25-M absolutely zooms past mechanical hard drives in read speed tests—and its access times are orders of magnitude quicker. We're not going with a RAID configuration because the X25-M lacks mechanical components, so it should be much more reliable than a traditional hard drive. (Also, it's expensive enough already.) We've passed on Intel's new X25-E Extreme, which has much faster write speeds but only a 32GB capacity at an even higher price.

By the way, the X25-M has a 2.5" form factor, so it probably won't fit in a regular desktop case on its own. We suggest either purchasing an adapter or just duct-taping the thing inside your case. Hey, it's just a bunch of flash memory chips inside a metal enclosure, after all.

Since the X25-M only has an 80GB capacity, we're combining it with a pair of 1TB Western Digital Caviar Blacks for mass storage. Both Seagate's 1.5TB Barracudas and WD's 2TB Caviar Greens are slower overall, and the 2TB Caviar Greens have the added downside of considerably higher prices. On the optical side of things, we're featuring our Blu-ray/HD DVD combo drive as a primary pick here, since we doubt you'll want to watch only standard-def DVDs on a system like this.

Audio
Asus' Xonar DX fits in just as well here as in our other builds. That said, musicians and others who require more connectivity options may want to consider the Xonar D2X in our alternatives section.

Eagle-eyed readers might notice that, with two dual-slot graphics cards installed, our recommended motherboard won't have any PCIe x1 slots free for the Xonar DX. But that's okay: you can slip it into the remaining PCIe x16 slot. That will admittedly prevent you from running a three-GPU setup, but as far as we've seen, that third GPU wouldn't do much for performance, anyway.

Power Supply
PC Power & Cooling's 750W Silencer would fit happily in this case, but we're still shunning it because of negative user reports on Newegg. Instead, we've settled on Corsair's TX850W, a higher-wattage version of the Sweeter Spot's PSU. This unit has similar advantages—a greater-than-80% efficiency rating, five-year warranty, and a single 12V rail—but it has more juice and more cables, including two pairs of eight-pin PCIe power connectors for high-end graphics cards. The TX850W might be louder than the Silencer, but we're not as worried about noise levels here. All of these high-end parts will make some noise when they kick into high gear, anyway.

Enclosure
We believe a good workstation requires a big, roomy case, so we've brought back Cooler Master's Cosmos 1000 for that purpose. This enclosure shares some design elements with the Antec P182 (like a flipped internal layout that houses the power supply at the bottom), but it's bigger, badder, and more enthusiast-friendly. Four 120mm fans generate plenty of airflow, and the Cosmos has enough room to accommodate six hard drives, five 5.25" drives, multi-GPU configurations, and internal liquid cooling systems.

Cooler Master also primed the case for quiet operation by using insulated side panels and low-speed fans. Hit our full review of the Cosmos for additional details on this case's unique features and swanky design.