I'd shoot you a picture of my office if I were there.
I'll try to explain my setup as best as I can, though:
I purchase DDR2 and DDR3 RAM (Desktop), and still deal with DDR occasionally (Though not too often). I keep desktops to test each type of RAM. They're just run-of-the-mill Dells.
For hard drives, I keep two computers: An eMachines for SATA, and two Compaqs for IDE (One has a laptop IDE to Desktop IDE adapter in it). I boot Parted Magic in them all, and run "Gsmartcontrol" for testing. Gsmartcontrol is just a Linux package, so you can just install it on any hard drive that has Xubuntu on it.
There are dedicated RAM testers, but there's no way that I'm spending $2500 on one for something that can be solved with a free Linux program. It's not the easiest or best way to do it, but for me, the few desktops work well.
If you're cramped for space, look into a KVM switch. It'll let you use one monitor, keyboard, and mouse on multiple computers.
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