CNET Labs' Dream PC

Give a geek an unlimited budget to build a computer, and what do you get? We decided to find out by going on a shopping spree that would make Paris Hilton proud, seeking out the latest styles without once bothering to look at a price tag.

What makes our dream PC tick? For starters, its custom paint job is easy on the eyes. You can find a variety of PC cases these days, but nothing can top the layered, custom-designed automotive finish courtesy of Smooth Creations. Inside, our lean, mean computing machine sports parts that would appeal to gamers or power users who hunger for the best in PC performance. For example, digital video editors and filmmakers would salivate at our dream PC's 650GB of storage space, and overclockers would drool over the hidden potential provided by the 550-watt power supply.

We chose not to perform any overclocking; our dream PC's components are running at their factory-default settings. In fact, you can buy many of the parts we selected from PC vendors -- from big, bad Dell to smaller shops such as Falcon Northwest. Other supplies you'll see here -- the power supply and the heat sink, for instance -- are harder to order in a retail desktop system. For those parts, we turned to FrozenCPU, an online purveyor of PC supplies. With a seemingly infinite number of choices, we couldn't choose just one way to go, which is why you'll see alternatives listed to some of the parts we selected. With that, we give you our dream PC -- no purse strings attached.