[leejsmith]

at the moment i have the following systems

1. p3-600 windows 2000 server running as NAT to share internet connections + email server setup to remove spam and any attachments containing com , pif , vbs , js , scr , exe.
inoculate it antivirus server setup to check for update every 3 hours and send them to my other pc's.

this is water cooled with my koolance exos in silent mode with no other fans and runs 24/7.
( i used one of the chipset coolers on the cpu as my 200g would not fit)

2. p3-1000 with a radeon all in wonder card setup as digital video recorder connected to my tv and has a wireles keyboard.

3. p3-1000 server in a intel sc5000 server chasis , imb 4l ultra 160 raid card with 5 lvd 9gb scsi drives. This was going to be used as a learning tool for my mcse but it's too noisey. I might re-use the case for something else.

4. compaq deskpro sff p3-550. this is being used for a webcam server at the moment.

5. my main computer p4-2.533 running at 3.230 gforce 4 ti4200 water cooled with a diy cascade soon to be a real cascade. I use this for most things from games to visual basic programming , 3d studio ect ect.

plus i have a p41.7 and athlon 1100 used for testing the water blocks i made and they are not in cases.

so i almost have what you discribed boli.

I am not saying i am actually going to spend all my money on a super powerfull pc but i am interested to know what is the most powerfull desktop i could get.

at the moment i would have to say a dual xeon 3gig with a fx5900 ultra but i also know this will change very soon with the new athlon64's and opterons on the way.

And i agree it is the wrong time to spend so much money. Either wait and get a new system or wait and get this system at half the price.