Check Out the Gigs on That: Origin's ''The Big O''

[Synthesis]

A sound card wont that much of a difference unless your going to spend on an actual audio setup (as in $1k+ Speakers, and not the generic Logitech stuff), on board sound is a lot better than what its use to be and is fine for general use.

[Bronze_D]

you forgot though that whoever is going to burn 5 digit on a computer,

will probably afford something better than a mere generic speaker in all likelihood

[asmodai]

As a person who splurged on 72 inches of 5760x1200 eyefinity eyecandy, I can safely say that this system is ridiculous overkill.

There will be few tasks where you need 24 virtual cores on 24 gigs of RAM. Running an ESX server with about 5-10 virtual servers (say, a domain controller, exchange server etc) might give it a bit of stress...

Even running a 64 bit OS, most of the software you use will be 32 bit still (games wise) or won't even touch that much RAM.

Much like driving a Bugatti Veyron on Australian roads, it's excessive to the point of the ludicrous, but if you've got the money, why the hell not... =)