Not that I have $12K to spend, but let's just pretend. Since you are probably familiar with my level of geekiness, you have most likely realized, by now, that said hefty sum would go toward a shiny new computer system.

For my part, knowing the eclectic circle reading this blog, I fully expect to be corrected in my errant ways in choosing the bits and pieces, which would potentially become a formidable space heater amidst my already tropical office climate.

CPU
I admit it, I'm a Dapper Dan man. Every single time I tried anything but Intel processors, I ran into system performance and/or stability problems. I may simply have been unlucky, but I'll forgo the angst of going against my instinct, thank you very much, and choose an Intel QX9770 CPU.

Motherboard
I have always had good luck with ASUS motherboards so like a good old boy, swearing by his trusty old Buick, I'll go for the P5E3 Premium motherboard, since it sports the nicely featured Intel X48 chipset.

I should probably interject that the above motherboard won't support nVidia's SLI technology - only ATI's CrossFire. In my opinion, Nvidia's 790i chipset is an immature technology, given the problems people are experiencing with 790i motherboards. The most stable 790i motherboard, I've heard of, is the ASUS P4N64 WS Pro, with a price tag of about $450.

Memory
I've had good experiences with Corsair memory as well, so that'll be two 4GB Dominator PC16000 kits, please.

Monitor
You can never get enough screen real estate; that's a fact of life. Since my Dell 24" UltraSharp monitor is still a beautiful thing to behold, I'll get another one. While we're at it, I'll opt for a 30" UltraSharp as well. That way, there could be a 24" monitor in portrait format on each side of the landscape format 30" monitor. Yeah, I could live with that; couldn't you?

Graphics Adapter
What on earth would drive two 24" and one 30" monitor? Why, two GeForce 9800 GX2 cards, of course. There simply is no bigger bang for this kind of money - at least not until the ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 hits the streets. I'll go with the 700MHz XFX Black edition. You know - so my office will be nice and toasty during winter, also.

August 12, 2008 - UPDATE:
The Radeon HD 4870 X2 is out! This baby will set you back $560 - $90 more than the GeForce 9800 GX2. That leaves us with a total of $12,022 before shipping and miscellaneous odds and ends. This proves my theory that if you try hard enough, you can blow any budget!

RAID
SATA II is the way to go here, I believe, which means 3ware. The optimal card for this system would be the 9650SE-12ML, the smallest 8-lane PCI Express controller in the collection. Yeah, I think I might be able to cram that into the remaining PCI-E socket, next to the graphics cards. Note to self: Buy a rubber hammer, just to be on the safe side.

Hard Drives
For the system's 1.2TB RAID 6 array, the obvious choice is Western Digital's Velociraptor. That'll sound really cool as they spin up, one by one, won't it?

Optical Drives
Allegedly, Sony is the best choice when it cones to Blu-ray drives. It baffles me to learn, then, that Sony's Blu-ray burner lacks a 64-bit driver. The substantially cheaper GGW-H20L Blu-ray burner made by LG Electronics works perfectly on 64-bit Windows Vista and should even be slightly faster, so I'll go with that one instead. The BD-ROM drive, however, will be Sony's BDU-X10S model. I know, I know, I'm a brand snob.

Power Supply
Powering this amount of high-performance hardware isn't a job for your puny old 500W power supply. What's more, a PSU is not very effective at or near its maximum power capacity. Thinking big, I choose Cooler Master's Real Power Pro 1250W, which should be up to the job, and then some. Maybe it'll cause a brownout over at the Intel campus, instead of the other way around, for once.

Case
Lian Li is the master in this field. The noise-dampened PC-A20B midi tower is perfect, since it separates the hard drives and motherboard, preventing cooling problems in one area from affecting the other. It also fits snugly into the available space under my nice beechwood desk. Don't worry, I'll keep a fire extinguisher nearby.

Cooling
An important topic, especially with this configuration. I've heard good things about Zalman CPU coolers, so that job goes to the Zalman CNPS9700 NT. I did consider the blue LED model, but my progressed age got the better of me, sorry.

O/S
What fun is 8GB of memory if you can't use it? The only logical choice for an old Windows hacker in need of a 64-bit O/S is Windows Vista Ultimate. It'll be so much fun to figure out how much of my existing software will no longer work.

Let's see - that's $10,493, right there. You know, my old printer is getting run down, and I really like the Xerox Phaser 6360/DN. That'll be another $1,349, so now we're looking at a $11,842 total. That leaves $158 for shipping, necessary cables, and an additional case fan or two. Twelve grand for a computer system, isn't that something? Never mind that my driveway is caving in and the paint is flaking off the siding of the house. Geeks know their priorities!

After all this, if you've convinced yourself that I have had waaay too much free time on my hands, these last couple of days, you'd be right.