Can you build me a plasma based space-propulsion thing? I'd like to become rich. What about a nuclear fusion reactor? I hear some nifty stuff can happen with those.

That being said, have any suggestions for something a little more conventional? a specific type of desktop RAM that you think is awesome?

 

Heh. You're asking this of a Mac user? I may just have to break out the awesome: :awesome (I'm writing this from my MacBook Air, probably my all-time favorite machine).

I'm not that big into desktop machines, so all I can recommend is that you go with what works for you. Intel and AMD both make quality chips nowadays and you can't go wrong with either. (Though it's too bad they decided to fuck the world and make memory affinity protocols among their multi-cores orthogonal--if apps designers aren't savvy, and they aren't, multi-threaded apps will do well on one, but not the other).

Myself, I always splurge on high-end keyboards and monitors. I'd probably give up sex for a month before my IBM Model M keyboard, with its sexy scissors keys. Watch out for cheap-ass flat panels--they do this flicker thing to mock up some of the visible spectrum that makes them worse than CRTs for eyestrain. At work, I use a pair of 30" Mac monitors (say what you want about their computers; they make outstanding monitors). At home, I have a high-end 24" NEC--rotated, of course.

 

2x Intel Core i7 extreme CPU's ~$2000
Dual Socket Intel X58 mobo ~$900
18gb of DDR3 RAm at the fastest you can find ~$2000
Two ATI 4870X2's in CFX or three Nvidia GTX280's in tri sli with a GTX 280 as the phsyx accelerator. ~$2400
4x 256gb Intel SSD's in RAID 0 for OS/Apps/Games $2000
4x 1.5tb HDD's in raid 5 for storage $1000
Sound Card $500
TV Card with FIOS link $200
Three separate water cooling systems, one for CPU and motherboard and RAM, one for video cards and one for HDD's. $2000
Highest wattage PSU you can find, Thermaltake toughpower 1800w or something ridiculous $600
Full tower aluminium case $600
2x blu-ray writers $500
card reader/fan control $100
FFD $20
Case fans + radiator fans + video card, mobo, RAM, CPU and HDD water blocks. $400

Add in misc items like lighting etc and you will have a 10k PC as I know you can get all those parts for much cheaper in the US/Canada compared to here in Australia. Once the markup has been taken off, importing etc costs it would come under 10k US, not sure about Canadian.

This would be the best spend $10k computer wise. Dual socket extreme Core 17, tri SLI GTX 280, Massive RAm, Mass storage and water cooled PC you could get. Sure it will loose a few thousand each year, but it will last 5-6 years in terms of power. The average $1500 PC wont get to these levels for around 10 years.

It would make a specced out Mac Pro look like a piece of shit that a poor African child got given by a relative.

FACT: Mac Pro uses video cards that are three generations behind. I would not buy a Mac Pro ever unless it was for a Sound/Video studio and needed the warranty. Thats the only reason. You could buy a dual socket monster elsewhere and have the warranty and power for less if you didn't need Mac OSX. Only get Mac OSX if you have critical applications which need Mac OSX and the warranty which comes with it.

Edit: AMD stopped making decent CPU's a long time ago compared to Intel.
Mac monitor's are omgwtfbbqhax in terms of quality but in terms of price fuck that. Also, the Macbook Air the biggest piece of shit I've ever seen in my life.

 

AMD's quad-core Barcelona is a decent chip. I wouldn't rate it above Intel's latest and greatest, but it's certainly not garbage. (There are things about it that are superior to Intel's design, but on the whole, I'd probably go with Intel today, if only because they got theirs out the door faster and apps have been tuned for it better).

As for the MacBook Air, it weighs a pound, has a sweet screen, excellent feel to the keyboard, and with a solid state drive, I get between 3 and 4 hours of use per charge. I think we'll have to agree to disagree here.

 

The air is a impressive machine.

My big issue with it though is the 1.6-1.8Ghz processor. Thats the same as my piece of shit 2 year old Dell laptop. I wouldnt buy anything under 2.0 nowadays.

 

Issue for Mac Air; lack of features vs cost. You are getting ripped. Shit all USB ports, no media drive and under average hardware. Not worth the price by far.

 

Hey Virail, if you step your budget up past $10k, you might be able to do this.

I'm sorry to sorta bump, but I thought this was fuckin' awesome. Parts list:
26 SAMSUNG SSD 256GB MLC
4 KINGSTON 800MHZ FBDIMM 1GB
6 1" SAS -> 4" SATA SFF-8087
6 1 MOLEX -> 4"SATA POWER
2 BLU-RAY (RW) / HD-DVD COMBO
2 COSAIR HX1000W POWER SUPPLY
2 INTEL EXTREME QX9775 QUAD CORE
2 ZALMAN COOLERS(SAWN TO FIT)
2 RADEON HD 4870 X2 GRAPHICS
1 INTEL SKULL TRAIL D5400XS MOTHERBOARD
1 ADAPTEC S SERIES RAID (8 CHANNEL STOCK SETUP)
1 ARECA 1680ix-24 RAID (BETA FIRMWARE FROM ARECA FTP)
1 THERMALTAKE ARMOUR CASE
(EDIT: CD rack to hold the drives, 'cause they won't fit in the case LOL)

 

4870X2s are fairly eww at this point.