The ARS Technica folks have released their 2007 Guide, once again bringing us their recommendations for a Budget Box ($741.99), the Hot Rod ($1,521.28), and the God Box ($10,228.30).
Be a good system build archive reader and pay close attention to the alternate recommendations and reasoning behind their exclusions, and most importantly, don't forget to read the forum responses!
I am having a really hard time not pulling the trigger on that Hot Rod box plus a few upgrades, like two 500GB SATA drives, 4 GB of RAM, and a 24" flat panel or two.
I keep telling myself that I have no time for gaming, and that there aren't enough good new games out there to make this worthwhile. Blizzard's Starcraft 2 was pushed back to last year.
I do wish I had a 3D-capable system lying around so I could try out Ubuntu Feisty Fawn with all its desktop effects enabled.
