Video Card: BFG GeForce 8800 GTS $450 @ www.bfgtech.com
Motherboard: EVGA nForce 680i SLI $250 @ www.evga.com
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 $182 @ www.intel.com
Memory: 1GB Corsair TwinX DDR2/800 $150 @ www.corsair.com
Case: Same one you have: Antec Nine Hundred $140 @ www.antec.com
Power Supply: Antec TruePower Trio 650 $125 @ www.antec.om
OS: Windows XP Pro OEM: $99 @ www.microsoft.com
Hard Drive: 250GB Maxtor DiamondMax 9 $70 @ www.maxtor.com
Optical Drive: Lite-On It Super AllWrite SHM-165H6S $35 @ www.liteonit.com
Total: $1501
I got this setup from a very reputable computer magazine called Maximum PC.
They have always shown the light on anything and everything.
The prices of those components may actually be a bit cheaper now. The system they built was overclocked a tiny bit, but is otherwise unnecessary, so as to not have to get advanced in "computerology". You will however have to install everything yourself, even the cpu, and drivers. You may need some small extras such as thermal paste if your cpu didn't come with that or a thermal pad. Installing the OS is pretty simple on XP.
Note* Overclocking was minimal that they did. But if you would really like to know how they overclocked, you can pm me.
Overall, this is a good setup for a mid range budget such as yours. In the benchmarks that they ran. Their setup pulled really decent numbers. Without the overclocking, you will get numbers fairly close to what they had. Overclocking simply is the method few users use to squeeze every bit of power they can from their system. It really isn't necessary and risky. I would opt not to OC.
Hope this helps in your quest to making a new PC. With the ability to run DX10 in the future. All you'll really need is Vista!
*Side note: Notice there isn't a soundcard in the system. That's because the on board sound was able to handle the load. For future upgrades, I would include the soundcard, just as they said they would do in a future upgrade. Even add another gig of ram.
One last thing to add, www.newegg.com has some great deals on your computing needs.
