I may be overdoing it let me know what you think pls!

Future proof is an illusion. If that needed proving, I'd just quote someone who once said:

"- upgrading to 12GB total when hardware's available"

"- upgrading to directX 11 cards eventually"

"- upgrading to 250GB solid state HD for OS when prices come down"

The only other advice I'd offer is: If you are considering factory sealed liquid coolers, know that none have outperformed the best standard air coolers. And air never leaks.

You asked for ideas to improve the computer:

Since money doesn't seem to be a barrier I would go ahead and add the SSD drive now. That will speed up the computer noticeably right away.

How about adding a Blu-Ray burner drive for high-def video and enhanced data archiving?

I would avoid the water-cooling unless you want to do it because it is cool -- as in "hip" or "en vogue" rather than lower temperature. It would be quieter, but air cooling should be sufficient to protect the components.

Maybe go with Windows 7 Pro instead of Home Premium for the added features such as XP Mode.

You didn't say how many monitors you are using or what type or resolution they are. You could always add more monitors or upgrade to bigger ones.

Sorry, no intention to mock. But too many people come here with "future proof" as the improbable goal of a hardware configuration. A 1000W psu is likely "future proof", a good case will last quite a while as well, beyond that . . .

I'll lead with what I said earlier about liquid cooling. A good case (and the Spedo is a good one, esthetics and size being a personal matter) and a top-notch air cooler will handle any cpu OC'd for 24/7 use. And the currently available factory-sealed liquid coolers do not perform as well as the current top air solutions.

The hassle of full-on liquid cooling is worthwhile for noise reduction and for relocating heat transfer by relocating the radiator. It also is useful when using two or (especially) more than two vid cards.

5870s and an OC'd i920 would probably have lasted longer than your current pair, but that flight has left the field.

An SSD (I'd recommend OCZ Vertex - see below) has just crossed into "acceptable buy" status IMO. You really don't need quite as large an SSD as you think to gain significant system response because of it. A 120GB SSD paired with a WD Black 640GB drive is a great combo. The new WD 2TB drive outperforms the Velociraptors, and so makes an even better - if maybe overkill - partner.

SSD article, conclusion page: http://www.anandtech.com/storage/s [...] i=3667&p=9 (Anand has several articles preceding this one if you want to gain a better understanding of the recommendations.)

WD 2TB drive, conclusion page: http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] 30-12.html

I haven't seen a system that would still be considered "quick" after 5 years.

I'd offer a piece of advice FWIW . . .

Three years ago I paid $6,000 for a Dell XPS 710 H2C with a 3.2GHz factory OC'd quad (I was chicken to OC), a pair of 8800GTX gcards in SLI (fastest card on the planet at that time), a pair of raptors in RAID 0, a 1,000W psu (needed for the incredible power consumed by those parts), a hybrid air/water cooling solution (to deal with the heat those parts throw off, a *huge* 50lb case, and a 24" high quality monitor (expensive at that time). Oh, and a 4 year warranty.

I am typing on that system now. It still games pretty well but there really isn't any way I can see it going beyond the 4-year warranty or perhaps 5 years in its role as "primary game system". Is it "upgradable"? Maybe.

Instead of buying a future-proof system, I could easily have purchased one step below the "fastest card/cpu/disk/cooling on the planet", and bought 2 or 3 high-power systems for the same price. Or less.

The approach I took is not completely analagous to yours - times are different. But the principle . . . with a "new" system every couple of years I'd be future-proof by always being in the present, likely for a far lower price.

I never really thought about I figured with an AMD socket I could always get a new chip eventually without a new board. Get new cards when the ones I have are out of date. I've only built one other comp back in '02 and ddr i think was just coming out with ddr3 if figured I'd be able to hang about that long if I treat it real nice and a hurricane doesn't blow out my windows (South Florida ya know). BTW I'm a little chicken to OC too but my board has a manual OC dial built in. I'll take a picture and let ya'll know how it runs when I get the CPU. I've got it all put together save for that, and the dual 128 SSDs I havn't bought yet.