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I'd go with four of AMD's upcoming Barcelona quadcore CPUs, max out the RAM capacity, a pair of the upcoming ATI R600 video cards in Crossfire mode, one or two 30" widescreen monitors (I'm not sold on the dual screen thing), a RAID of those new 32GB Sandisk flash drives for the boot partition and a RAID of the upcoming terabyte SATA HDs for data storage so I'd never have to delete MythTV HDTV recordings (using a 3Ware SATA RAID controller?), at least a couple of HD-5500 HDTV tuners, dual boot 64-bit Vista Ultimate (for games) and Fedora 7 (for everything else, running 32-bit WinXP in a KVM instance when I have to), maybe a X-Fi audio card, probably a PC Power & Cooling kilowatt power supply, a Blu-ray burner, watercooling by DangerDen, and a suitable case (maybe a Thermaltake Mozart TX?).

And a naquada generator so I could power it all off-the-grid.

Alternatively, a Tyan Personal Supercomputer might be fun too.

Well, I wasn't able to find a $200 waterblock, but I found one for $130 with a solid silver base. Most that I just now found were in the $60 range, and the one I have sells for $35 brand new. Even the top of the line ones, completely chromed out, are only $85. Check out these sites for waterblocks if you are only able to find $200 ones (five sites specifically for modders and water coolers who like the blinged out products, and not one has a $200 block):

xoxide
SVC
DangerDen
high speed PC
frozen cpu

While I paid twice what I would've had I done it myself with a local machine shop, I think the extra $20 was worth the testing and build experience of a mass market block.

Watercoolers have been using car heater cores (the radiators that go in the dash for the inside heating/cooling) forever to cool their loops. You can even buy them with the ends pre-cut for normal hose sizes (I just bought one from a junk yard for $10 and cut the hose ends myself). This is a just a normal "bigger is better" (and impractical...) progression.

It all depends on what your interests in watercooling is... if it is just to have quiet computers, then you don't need much. If you want cool looks and good overclocking, then you'll want higher quality stuff.

For just quietness, a low priced kit is fine:
iceberg 1
iceberg 2 (recommended by me)
maxxpert
aquarius 2 (also a good buy)

Those require no work or research, and are inexpensive. For overclocking or to make it look cool with windowed cases, you either buy an expensive kit or build yourself (which requires research).

Good kits:
Asetek (good pick for a new user)
danger den (good quality, requires some research)
other

If you want to build your own (as good as the high end kits at the same price as the low end kits), you'll need:
block (Maze 4 or similar)
pump (Via Aqua)
radiator (pick heater core style)
reservoir (any will work)
tubing (clear flex or tygon, 1/2")
water wetter (any will work)
clamps
fan (120mm, look for quiet)

all of which can be purchased at any of those sites. The radiator can even be the heater core from an '84 Chevrolet Chevette ($16 at Autozone).

Hope that helps.

or with a dangerden kit it wont break 40C, like mine!

ok this is pretty easy... get a chip that doesnt put out alot of heat like a low end Athlon XP or a Duron. Throw in some WC gear from Danger Den, a 120mm 60cfm fan (they're almost silent), and you're set. If you worry about the chipset and GPU, put waterblocks on those too. Also remove any other case fans you have, the 120mm fan as a blowhole will work nicely unless you have a really hot system.

As for the HDD, I'd suggest a Seagate Barracuda ATA IV, they are almost completely silent.

Now get a PSU with a speed-controllable fan (enermax has a few) or a temperature controlled fan (Antec SmartPower) and you're set, almost complete silence.

But! You can now buy off-the-shelf parts (here, for example) that all work together and can just be bolted together. You can build sealed systems, removing the risk of spills if you move the machine and meaning you don't have to top the system up to allow for evaporating levels. You can get dinky little 120mm radiators which can be fitted inside the case, meaning the entire system can be self-contained. And if the system is well-built enough, the risk of a joint bursting and soaking your motherboard is a lot less than your HSF falling off and frying your Athlon.

Balanced against that, you can get cooling performance superior to a fan-based system and a hell of a lot quieter. And the disadvantages of watercooling will only get less as they become more and more commoditized.

• 250 GPH Submersible water pump $34 - I think you can get away with a smaller unit, but this runs fairly quiet, especially when put in a cabinet.
• Maze2 Waterblock $42 - This, in my opinion, is the best waterblock out there, and the price ain't bad.
• Transmission oil cooler $44 - dangerden also sells these, since in my exp. carparts.com may take months to deliver.
• Assorted hardware and tubing <$20 - Some 3/8" ID tubing, some hose clamps, and an adapter convert the 1/2" pump to 3/8".
• Some time $priceless - Anyone got some of this for sale? I can use some!

Slap it all together and you're in business. I've removed two of the fans from the case, and put one of them on the radiator but I never turn it on. The one in the power supply runs at low speed until the PSU gets really hot (which it never does now since all the heat is piped out of the case). The hard drives (2x 40GB 7,200RPM IBM 60GXPs) still make some noise, but I put the case on, and put the box in the cabinet in my desk, and I can't even tell if it is running. The ThinkNIC named littlelarry with the fan removed from its heatsink now makes more noise.