Best possible custom build

realize that budget plays a huge factor. builds can range from as little as a few hundred dollars for a low end budget system to over ten thousand dollars for a top of the line system. keep in mind that once you top a certain price point, your value for the dollar starts to decline. the average person does not need a $10000 system. normally prices for top of the line systems range between $2000-4000 depending on your particular wants and needs of course.

as far as my opinion on what i would personally build if i was given an open budget? it would require more research but off the top of my head this is what i came up with.

corsair obsidian case or other high end full sized tower
intel i7 3960x extreme unlocked socket 2011 cpu
asus rampage IV extreme socket 2011 mobo
mushkin ram to fit mobo specs, minimum 12gb
4x evga gtx 690 gpu
4x ocz octane 1tb ssd in raid 1+0/0+1 or similar
4x ocz octane 1tb ssd data drives
1200-1500w psu evga, pcp&c or asus. depending on power demands.

full dangerden watercooling system for all gpu, all ssd and cpu. full thickness extreme radiators with delta fans. delta fans and fan control for ambient airflow.

3x 1920x1080p 8bit ips lcd panels 22" to 24"
1x 40" to 50" 1080p television
das, deck or similar mechanical keyboard
logitech g9, razer deathadder or similar mouse

pioneer home theater receiver
klipsch quintet 5.0 speaker set and 450w subwoofer. or if you want to go crazy a full set of tower speakers.

realize that we are talking about a system and perepherals totalling $30000-40000.

can we go that insane? sure we can. is it practical? not really.

more practical is $2000 for the tower, $1000 for perepherals.

Well i just wanted to know what the top of the line hardware is currently capable of, as to compare. Albeit you definitely answered my question and then some. This system you got here could still be great with less expensive peripherals, you know just the hardware, plus i don't think four graphics cards are even remotely necessary although i do applaud you for taking the time to extensively answer the question.

nick0_o,

you did question what an unlimited budget system would look like. in retrospect, i suppose a supercomputer would also fall under that category. as i stated before, we have practical and then we have excessive.

now if i were to suggest a system more down to earth?

$200 case + accessories
$200-300 i7 cpu
$300 asus mb
$100 mushkin 6-12gb ram
$600 nvidia gpu
$200 256gb ssd boot
$200 2x 1tb data hdd
$200 1kw psu

thats around $2000 give or take depending on what deals you find. in fact that is around the number i shoot for when doing my new system upgrades. much more practical with enough staying power to not be inadequate in a few years time. the last system i built (2003) i still running and can max out most games pre 2007 and can even (although barely) run ut3 and other 2007-2008 high demand games. considering i only spent $1500 on the tower i think this is pretty reasonable performance.

if you factor in the 4 solid years of maxing games out this comes to $375 per year. even if you dump an extra $500 into a new gpu, ram or upgrades to max out games for another 2 years of performance that is still just $250 per year for those two extra years (or $333 per year for 6 years).

considering how quickly price for products drops by 50% every 6 months it is not worthwhile to buy bleeding edge technology. buy one step down and you get the performance without the high price.

Speaking in terms of average gaming joes, spending up to $3000 would be considered good enough to be top of the line to them.