Out of hibernation! Need quick run down.

Well, it's almost summer again, my time of the year to clean the sleep from my hardware-modding eyes and get down to business...but alas, I've fallen behind the times and have no clue where the industry stands!

So, for any kind soul willing to give me a quick run down of the latest and greatest (and soon to be released uber technologies) a million thanks!

Here's some of my biggest questions:

What's C1 stepping? Why's it good? Is it on both intel and AMD?

Dual channel? What is it? Why's it good?

What are the best AMD mobo's on the market right now...which are the best overclockers?

Is the barton good? how good? Amazingly good?

I know nforce has been around for awhile, but i just missed the boat on it last upgrade...what's it's claim to fame?

Is it possible to (fairly easily) do water cooling on the CPU and the northbridge? I've read nice things about water cooling/bong coolers + peltiers...so I was wondering how high I could get a system performance wise with that kind of heat solution?

Thanks!

all of your questions can be answered by browsing the forums or using the search button.

Quick run down... okay...

C1 is the newest northbridge revision for the nforce2. Supports 400 mhz fsb. AMD only.

Dual memory controllers, twice the bandwith. Worthless for AMD, necessary for Intel.

Abit NF7(-s) rev. 2, Epox 8RDA+ (latest revision).

Sorta, 5% faster than tbredbs at the same speed. 2500+ OCs about as well as JIUHBs.

Dual channel, integrated graphic (equivalent of gf4 mx = crap), soundstorm (quality better than audigy, not better than audigy2), 200+ FSBs.

Easy to do, there are even kits. Depends on application, farther than air, but at a cost.