Buildout : Hardware

Well, the first thing I needed was a rackmount PC. I was dead set on a single rack space unit. Surprisingly, it was difficult to find one that was low-cost and had the horsepower I needed. I wound up going with a PC from SuperLogics. Here's the specs on the one I bought:

Rackmount PC:
Model number : SL-1U-3-H67CF-GC which includes
Rack Mount Industrial PC - 19" 1U, 11" Deep
Intel® Core™ i3 (3.1GHz dual core)
Intel Motherboard with H67 Chipset
8GB DDR3 1333MHz RAM
Onboard 10/100/1000 LAN,
500GB SATA 2.5" 7200RPM HDD,
Onboard graphics subsystem with integrated DVI-I,HDMI, and DisplayPort video outputs,
2 USB 3.0 ports
6 USB 2.0 Ports (2 Front, 4 Rear) - 2 in the front will be handy if you have MIDI via USB controllers,
1 PCI Express x16 Expansion Slot via riser card,
150W Power Supply
1 Year Warranty (Part/Labor -Depot)

Audio Interface:
I had a USB audio/MIDI interface laying around, so that's what I used. It's a Focusrite Saffire USB 6. Nice thing about it is that it's powered by USB, so I don't have to carry around or mount another power supply.

MIDI:
I have two keyboards, but the Focusrite only has 1 MIDI input, so I also purchased a MIDI Solutions Midi Merger. This device will take two independent MIDI inputs (one from each of my keyboards) and merge them into a single output. If you have only one MIDI controller or your controllers have MIDI via USB, you could skip this piece of hardware.

WIFI:
This is optional. I don't want to carry around a keyboard, monitor and mouse to gigs, so I'll need a means of accessing the PC from my Android smartphone in the event (fingers crossed) anything goes wrong.

I had a Belkin 802.11g USB adapter laying around, so that's what I used.

Rack:
For ease of transport plus protection of the equipment, I purchased a Gator GRB Rack Bag (2 rack-space)