Well, it seems a lot of us are creating similar machines.. I'm going with e6600, 7950gt (another for sli later), Corsair XMS2 DDR2-800, probably the 680 mobo (depends on price), XClio A380 case (it has 2 x 22cm fans, one front and one on the side, plus optional 120mm fan for back exhaust), and Western Digital 250 or 300gig Sata hard drive (a second later for Raid 1).
For sound, I'm betting the on-board or w/e comes with the 680 will be good enough for me. As for the psu, I got the 600watt Ultra X-Finity psu (has SLi support). That should be plenty with fans and all. And for the hsf, I decided to go with the Thermalright Ultra-120 (you can find
here), or you could go big and bad with the Vigor Monsoon II (
here). Following up with a few reviews, it seems like the peltier has finally been done right. The controller should make sure that the cpu temp never falls below ambient air temp, but still stay within 1-3 degrees of it for max performance. I have never taken the time to figure out why Lian Lee's are so expensive and sought after, but having larger fans means that they can run at lower (quieter) speeds and still pull more air than many smaller ones. That's why I went with the A380; besides that, I'm also going to cut out a blow hole to fit another 120mm fan up top.
EDIT: As for the battery back up, I work at CompUSA and I know ACR (or is it ACS?) makes some that can last up an hour! I think one went as far as 360 minutes also. But those are gargantuine bohemoths!
**Off topic, but read at your leisure**
I was wondering, what it you built some kind of refrigeration device that could be attatched to the top of your case and have pipes running through the inside of the case (at the top, duh). The cold air produced by the pipes will descend while hot air escapes via a small 80mm fan in the back. The entire case would be sealed, either by metal welds or weather stripping keeping the temperature inside the case completely locked in from the outside air temperature. Assuming this could be arranged, achieving temperatures below freezing (around -10 to -20) would be easy and not cause condensation on any of the computer parts. Condensation may appear on the outside, but I certainly wouldn't care. Just a neat thought and was wondering if maybe it has already been done. The closest and easiest way to try this out would be fitting a computer inside a small refrigerator (the kind most college students get for a dorm room) and see if any condensation builds up. The only drawback I thought of this idea was that if too much heat was accumulated in the "case," then it would start to fog up and eventually start to create iceicles. Which would be funny to see, but not in your own case, lol. And that brings me to my next thought; with build up on your mobo, some parts will likely get too hot to effectively cool and melt down the ice and well.. we know where that leads. I guess even more challenging that building a case like that, would be to find a suitable temperature range to keep it cooled at.
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