howdy Arasoi and welcome to the forums!

there are a ton of options when building a rig. i'll toss one out, which is by no means then end-all-be-all... just a very solid box. (others will probably do the same)

my goal is to make a fast gaming system... as such, i don't care about internal storage. there are plenty of eSATA drives that have 500-1000GB storage.

case: CoolerMaster CM690 Nvidia Ed. ATX Case SLI Ready $ 99.99
powersupply: PC Power & Cooling / Silencer / 750-Watt / Quad PCI-Express / SATA-Ready / Black $134.99 ($ 25 rebate available)
mainboard: EVGA nforce 780i SLI Motherboard - A1 Version, NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI, Socket 775 $189.99 ($ 30 rebate available)
cpu: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Processor BX80569Q9550 - 2.83GHz, 12MB Cache, 1333MHz FSB, Retail $349.99
memory: 2 x Corsair Dual Channel XMS2 4096MB PC8500 DDR2 1066MHz Memory (2 x 2048MB) $ 79.99 * 2 = $159.98
cpu fan: Thermaltake CL-P0464 DuOrb CPU Cooler for AMD CPUs $ 69.99
hard drive: Patriot Warp 64GB Solid State Hard Drive - SATA-300, 2.5" $179.99 ($ 50 rebate available)
video card: BFG GeForce GTX 280, 1GB GDDR3, PCI Express 2.0 x16, SLI Ready, Dual DVI, HDTV, HDMI $384.99 (after rebates)
cd/dvd/dvdrw: Sony DRU-V200S/BR DVD Rewritable Drive SATA (black) $ 39.99
keyboard: Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard (2007 Version) $ 79.99 (tough call between this and the razer)
monitor: HP w2408h Vivid Color 24" Widescreen Flat Panel, 5ms, 1000:1, 400 nits, HDMI/HDCP $459.99 (i have this one... awesome!)
os: Windows Vista Home Prem 64-bit DSP OEM DVD with Service Pack 1 $109.99

subtotal: $ 2,259.87
mail-in rebates: $ 105.00
total: $ 2,154.87

of course, i would TOTALLY recommend one more thing... have the guys at the local compusa (or fry's?) assemble it for you.. MOST DEFINITELY worth it

assembly: $150.00

estimated total cost (without tax): $ 2,304.87


of course, you could get a second monitor... but that's up to you. i run a 5-box with a 4-stack on the right without any problem (i use the other monitor for reference sites)

good luck with whatever you end up with. and please... post some pics (with loads of specs, boxes and before/after pics!)