Did a bit of googling and came up with the fastest possible configuration for a desktop as of today 16th June 2008. It was not so easy since many of the products were new to the market and few people had got a chance to play around with them. But I finally came up with the below configuration. Of course it is bound to change in a few months but it is always good to know what is the best out there.
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 Quad Core Processor (3.2GHz, 4x3MB, 1600MHz FSB, LGA775 Socket T)
Intel DX48BT2 Motherboard (Intel Socket T LGA775, X48 Express, ATX, 8GB, 1600MHz FSB)
Corsair XMS3 DHX 4GB PC3-12800 DDR3 DIMM Memory Kit x 2
Asus GeForce 9800 GX2 Video Card (1GB, PCI-Express 2.0 x16, Dual DVI, HDMI)
WD Caviar GP 1TB Hard Drive (Serial ATA-300, 7,200 RPM, 16MB)
Sony BWU-100A Blu-Ray Disc Writer (2x/2x/2x BD, 8x/8x/8x DVD+RW, 8x/6x/8x DVD-RW, 4x DVD±RW DL, 32x/16x/24x CD-RW)
Sony BDU-X10S Black Blu-ray Reader (2x BD-ROM, 8x DVD-ROM, 24x CD-ROM)
COOLER MASTER Real Power Pro RSC50EMBAD2 1250 Watts Power Supply
Cooler Master Centurion RC-541 Black Mini Tower (mATX, 6 Bays)
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 Quad Core Processor
At the time of writing Intel's QX9770 is one of the few processors that is a quad core at 3.2 GHz and has a 12 MB L2 cache with 1600 MHz FSB
Intel DX48BT2 Motherboard
Intel's DX48BT2 is the ONLY motherboard which naively supports 1600 MHz (i.e. without overclocking).
Corsair is one of the most reliable names in the memory industry and the above RAM has been verified to operate at 1600 Mhz. The above memory kit contains 2 x 2 GB cards. Two of these kits for 8 GB memory so that maximum possible performance can be utilized.
Asus GeForce 9800 GX2 Video Card
Asus is again a well known brand and GeForce 9800 GX2 is the only graphics chipset in the market that accommodates 1 GB of GDDR memory with a 512 bit memory interface.
WD Caviar GP 1TB Hard Drive
The maximum available capacity on a single internal hard drive at the time of writing is 1 TB (though external ones are available upto 3 TB). As mentioned it is a SATA II operating at 7200 RPM.
Sony BWU-100A Blu-Ray Disc Writer & Sony BDU-X10S Black Blu-ray Reader
I picked up the Sony for the Blu-Ray Reader and Writer.
COOLER MASTER Real Power Pro RSC50EMBAD2 1250 Watts Power Supply
A 1250W power supply (to power the high end system - specially the graphics card)
