pc hardware sources

Are there any guidelines for building a new PC specifically for EMC? i could probably stand to try a few video cards, but i would really like to hit on a solid motherboard/cpu combo to build from. Something manufactured somewhat recently would be nice...warranty/projected useful life.

Ideally if someone could recommend a whole system, where you only have to add a video card/parallel port card, that would be really nice.

I can't seem to find a good source for any of the hardware listed successful on the latency results page
wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/emcinfo.pl?Latency-Test
(which i found through the threads, but cannot locate by navigating any of the doc structures).
Most components seem several years old and discontinued. I can find great supplier/manufacturer info (say from newegg), then they say "no longer available". The rest of search results mostly consist of broken links/out of date listings. Can anyone recommend a reputable source for old hardware?The ones i found so far look real shady.

i found these guys, who try to push pc control over plc.
www.techni-systems.com/computers.html
Seems interesting, do their hardware choices make sense to you guys? They are going for windows based systems in the end so....i dunno.

Is EMC's performance directly proportional to the real time OS's performance, or are there other major pitfalls? If it's proportional, i could go bug the rt guys, it might make a larger pool of proven hardware to pick from

If you want a small form factor, the Atom Mini ITX D945GCLF2 seems pretty good
(other than the fan)

If you want a small form factor, the Atom Mini ITX D945GCLF2 seems pretty good
(other than the fan).

-PCW

thanks for the reply.
now that is a good looking little package:

Intel BOXD945GCLF2 Atom 330 Intel 945GC Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo $84from newegg.

only 1 pci though...probably need it for video.

PCW, do you know from personal experience if the built in parallel port works with EMC? no room to miss with only one PCI.

I know others are using the 945GCLF2 parallel port with EMC. We bought it to verify and fix a problem with
parallel port EPP communication to our 7I43 (our fault parallel port was fine).
The on card video is OK with EMC so the PCI slot is free.

thanks for the confirmation. yesterday i found a tip on cnczone, about off lease dells on ebay, recommending the optiplex series with P3s. I found one cheap enough but with a p4, i hope they are still compatible.
i'm really tempted to build a 945GCLF2 based system.....maybe after i spin some motors.

it's been a while since this was touched upon...
i replaced a motherboard in a smoked emachines T5254 with a biostar n68s+ ($44 at Directron).
reused the cpu, added a 9800gt and ran the latency test.
started out running about 2,400, got up to 10,000 whilst running other programs and playing music.
i will post screenshots later