motherboard for new penryn and 16 gb ram? Suggestions?

Mainstream motherboards only support 4 RAM slots at the moment, which, with RAM densities leading to only 2GB per stick, we are stuck with 8GB total.

Some weird external SATA array? Do you mind elaborating on that one??

Whats your budget? The ram alone will be be between 4000-6000 from a quick look at prices I saw.

Let's face it. You're gonna need to buy a real server if you NEED that much memory. The desktop market just cannot support that amount of memory, and frankly, wouldn't do too well with that much.

If, as I suspect, you're doing video conversion, photo-editing with hundreds of layers, 2/3d animation, etc. professionally you're gonna need a $10,000+ system to handle everything you need. That includes the entire workstation, all the ram you need, workstation graphics card(s), monitors, etc., as well as all the professional support/installation you'll need.

If, on the other hand, you're gonna just be experimenting with some stuff in your home, you'd be better suited saving your time/money and making a more down to earth system.

Regardless, if you need/want anymore help from the community here, I for one, need some more information about your intended usage scenario. If you don't mind me asking: Why exactly do you NEED 16+ GB of ram? Why the E-Sata? Could you do with buying a high-powered workstation from a big-name OEM like HP or Dell?

Definitely need some help here...

In that case, you may want to look into a high-powered multi-processor server/workstation, probably even rack mounted. Since you're dealing with lots of audio equipment, I'm sure you've got a rack to put it in. You'd be able to have SAS drives, rotating at 10k rpm, and not have to have an external array. You'd also be able to put as much ram as you need, as some boards can handle up to 128GB of ram (FB-dimms, of course).

Regardless of whether you want a rackmount or a free-standing unit, I recommend leaving the construction, configuration, and warranty to the professionals. Contact some people at HP, Dell, or Supermicro and they'll be able to help you configure a system that will fit your needs exactly. You'll be able to call them (hp, for example has 24/7 sales reps) and get a quote for a computer that will suit you quite nicely.

Good luck and happy hunting. I'm sure you're gonna have some really nice hardware by the time you're done.

[Edit]
Unfortunately, contrary to your name, this machine will be quite loud.

Sorry, just noticed your name...
[/Edit]

From the Steinburg Cubase site:

Random Access Memory

For Steinberg applications, nothing less than 512 MB RAM will do. However, all up-and-running applications and the operating system access the main memory at the same time, so installing more RAM is highly advisable. You may find that even sizable main memory acreage of 1 GB won’t suffice to deliver satisfactory system performance for larger projects. The reason for this is that VST instruments and audio projects load audio samples into the main memory and read them there. If you have don’t have much RAM installed, less material can be buffered there, and more data must be handled via the slower hard disks. This means access takes longer. Under normal conditions, Windows 2000 and Windows XP can use up to 2 GB RAM and Mac OS X, Windows XP x64 and Windows Vista 64 can address up to 4 GB in connection with Steinberg’s current Cubase/Nuendo versions. More RAM definitely does good things for your system’s overall performance.