I've recently been working with a good friend of mine on configuring a Virtual PC environment for examining the Office 12 beta, including the latest Office Server and SharePoint products.  He gave me a great idea for a blog entry that lists the tools, both hardware and software, that we use every day as Microsoft architects, developers, and consultants.  Here's my list of hardware:

Hardware:

1.  A good laptop.  Plan on getting a new one every two years.  Most important are RAM and disk capacity.  Nowadays, you need 2GB of RAM to setup multiple virtual machines, and at least a 100GB hard drive.  A DVD burner is also a necessity.  CPU clock speed is of less importance; look for the best "price point"  the latest processor but at a lower clock speed.  I'm a big fan of the AMD64 processors ...

2.  External hard drives.  A large external hard drive is essential for working with Virtual PC images as well as performing backups.  Consider getting two units: one to store your Virtual PC images, and one dedicated to a complete hard drive backup.  Both should be 250GB or greater.  You can save about $40. per unit by purchasing the external USB 2.0 case and the hard drive separately.  They are a snap to assemble ...

3.  Your network infrastructure.  You need a place to host your blog, email, test websites, and, in general, a "place to play".  Outsourcing is an inexpensive way to do this.  I've chosen to build my own small infrastructure (web server, email server, database server, and domain controller).  If you can afford to do this it is a great way to learn all about deployment, configuration, and network infrastructure issues.  You can also build up your infrastructure piece-by-piece ...

4.  Internet connection and router / firewall.  No mystery here.  You need a fast, reliable Internet connection and a hardware firewall to keep the bad people away from your "stuff" ...

In my next blog entry, I'll list the software tools that I can't live without ...