| Component | Justification |
| Pentium-II 300MHz processor | Peak performance/cost for this configuration |
| CPU fan | Required for Pentium-II |
| LX motherboard | Least expensive chipset supporting 300MHz |
| ATX tower case | Includes power supply for Pentium-II, etc. |
| 32MB SDRAM | 8MB RAM disk plus sufficient memory for our code |
| PCI 10MB Ethernet card | Low bandwidth Master-Node communication only |
| 32KB EPROM | Least expensive boot option |
| 3-ft Coaxial cable | Simple network without repeaters or hubs |