Yes, I am sure that was a joke
Mach .vs LS. 6 of one/half dozen of the other really. The LS and Mach II GT are the comparison to make since they both use the same gas (R507) and similarly sized compressors. By the time you accessorize the Mach II with optional the LCD and stuff, it's the same price as the LS new. The only real difference is that the Mach II "can" be had cheaper without the bells/whistles and the LS is all or nothing. Their socket mounts are all but identical now too. I personally would probably go for an LS over a Mach II.
There's also option #3: a custom built unit. I can't say enough about Chilly's unit. It's cheaper than both by a good margin and has better capacity than both. In fact, you'd have to mod/regas a brand new GT II or an LS to be as good as Chilly's unit. Problem is, if you order and pay for a SS from Chilly tomorrow, it will probably be somewhere between 2 weeks-3 months before you get it
That guy has so much on his plate, sometimes it takes him forever to get things done.
There are others that make units to suit too, probably some on this forums, definitely on other forums. If I were you, I'd poke around the Extreme Cooling section a bit. Short of that, you can occasionally find a good used LS on Ebay in the $600-$700 range. I'd stay far away from any Mach I unless it's already modded and regassed. They can be found cheap, so don't let them tempt you unless you feel like modding it yourself (new evap line/head, new condenser, new comp, regas). By the time you're done with all that, you're easily up to a new custom unit price unless you get it for free to start
There is one other "potential" option.
OCZ is making a phase unit. It's supposed to cheap ($300-$400), BUT it uses a very small compressor (1/6HP). The numbers I've seen from it are almost too good to be true, so I'll believe it when I see an off-the-shelf unit in an end-user's hands do the same thing. It won't be enough to set any WRs no matter what, but it should be damn good cooling for the price. In fact, at that price, you could almost have one each for a CF setup + the CPU for the same price as an LS, LOL.
Lastly, since you're the engineering type, I'd look into building your own. Look here too, but I think you'll end up at the Vapo/Phase section at XS. There's plenty of info and DIYers to give you info, calculations and how put it all together. Gassing it would probably be the biggest hurdle. You can get a license pretty easily to be able to buy the gas yourself, but if you did everything else, a local A/C shop could do it for you probably for less than the vacuum pump and gauge set would cost if you did that part yourself