It's running a pretty basic multi-process gcc compile (typically about 10-20 concurrent build processes) that builds a bunch of MIPS-based linux utilities (busybox, curl, opera, webkit, various linux libraries). Also builds an embedded linux OS+kernels. Then copies/compresses all that into an install file for each of about 8 platforms.

Budget is probably $5-7k.

As an example, we're currently running a 12GB tower with a quad core Intel i7-975 X58/ICH10R and a 3ware 9650SE-4LPML 256MB controller, and that takes about 4.5 hours to build everything.

Current thoughts are:
Intel Xeon E5-2687W 8-core
Intel PCI-E 2.0x8 RAID (RT3WB080)
Intel DBS2600CP2 motherboard
4GBx8 1600 (or 8GBx4, will have to find some on the MB's compat list)