Hard Hitting Snare

Let gain levels touch the red a lil bit. On the mixer and in the mpc.
I always use my eq.
In my 2500 I do need some extra tweaking and layering sometimes.
If I record the sample correctly in my s950 I don't need tweaking at all. Maybe some filtering and tuning.

Then I'll make it match the beat, work on that and stuff, track it out in Cubase and add some compression for punch and attack, add EQ and reverb. That's my routine for snares lately. Quiet satisfied with the results.

But still the most important thing is to find the right snare.

Nothing makes a snare hit harder than a good hardware compressor with a medium attack. It will do what software can't and make sheet bang. I use one of these...
http://www.mil-media.com/stt-1.html
It's pricey, but it makes sound go through the freakin' roof!

true story oin the hardware compressors..i use a 3630 and man that thing doubles up and fattens up the sound very nicely iv used it for years...even on vocals

A kick subtlety layered with a snare always does the trick.
And of course....EQ and compression if neccesary.

If it hasn't been mentioned, using and overdrive pedal, or a distorion plugin can work. Also, try layering your snare with different levels of white noise. To really get the snare to stand out you need to have a solid sound with nice attack, that fills a large frequency band.