Thank you to everyone who has helped me over the past week. I have thoroughly read every response and appreciated the feedback. Probably the biggest piece of advice that I ignored was from Freddie (Hotkeynet) and I could come to regret it in a year.

Here are the specs:

Purchased on www.buyxg.com

CoolerMaster Centurion 590 RC-590 Mid-Tower
-I tried to get the Antec P182 as I believe it looks better, but unfortunately you have to select from what is available on buyxg.com. I could have tried to build the system myself, but I didn't see any cost savings when pricing components on newegg.com and I'd rather have buyxg.com's 1-year warranty.

650 Watts Power Supply (Corsair CMPSU-650TX - Quad SLI Ready)
-I could have stuck with the default 420W power supply but after reading the thread I thought namebrand was important in this category. Though I don't think I'll need all 650, I also don't think it's total overkill.

Asetek Liquid CPU Cooling System (Extreme Cooling Performance + Extreme Silent at 20dBA)
-This was probably overkill and possibly a waste of money. However, hopefully it will ensure that my rig stays cool and at a cost of $65 I get the geek factor of having water cooling (though I understand this is a bastardization form of true water cooling)

Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-920 2.66 GHz 8M L3 Cache LGA1366
-Here is where I ignored Freddie's advice. Though I understand a significantly cheaper processor+mobo, with not significant reduction in performance, could be bought, I went with the i7 architecture because of the amount of RAM it can hold. With 12GB currently, and upgradeable to 24GB, I believe that my RAM needs will be met for at least 4-5 years before becoming much less than ideal. Also, and I may be incorrect with this thought process, but since i7 is new I'm hoping that right before they transition to a new architecture I can get the latest version. If that type of upgrade is possible, then my processor needs will be met for a long time (with upgrade in a few years).

MSI X58 Platinum Intel X58 Chipset SLI/CrossFireX Mainboard Triple-Channel DDR3/1600 SATA RAID w/ eSATA,Dual GbLAN,USB2.0,IEEE1394a,&7.1Audio
-I probably should have done more comparisons and asked more questions on my selection of the motherboard. However, between this mobo and the ASUS, Newegg had negative reviews on the ASUS which left the MSI the winner. Hopefully the mobo will be decent for at least a few years and I didn't skip any glaring bottleneck.

12GB (2GBx6) DDR3/1600MHz Triple Channel Memory Module (Corsair)
-When I priced the differential between ordering 6GB and upgrading through Newegg, it turned out that there weren't any cost savings and I'd rather have buyxg.com do it from the start. I'm new to this, but I believe Corsair has a decent reputation and the RAM should be of good quality.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 896MB 16X PCI Express
-I'm pretty unhappy to find out that it doesn't have a standard HDMI output and that I'll need to find a converter (which should be extremely easy) but otherwise it seemed like this card should handle 5 WoWs and be good for a few years. I'm a bit concerned with it being 896MB instead of 1G+ but since I don't really know what those numbers mean then I hope I can't tell the difference

320GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM Hard Drive
-With only a 64GB main drive this will hold all the music, movies, data files, etc. I really don't download that much and I doubt I'll fill the 320GB. However, since this computer is costing a pretty penny, I thought I should explore using it as my media center and really trying to utilize its capabilities. I already play WoW in my living room (two large screen HDs side-by-side, one for TV, one for video games) and I would love to figure out a good way to remove cable and replace with an internet/computer solution.

Creative Labs SB Audigy SE
-I really don't care about sound since usually I have to be talking with the g/f or "watching" TV while I play video game... for some reason me sitting right next to her isn't quality time if I have my headset on, but I digress. This is one of the cheaper upgrade options, but I wanted to take the sound processing off my mobo. I'm hopeful this will fill all my sound needs, which aren't extensive.

600Watts PMPO Subwoofer Stereo Speakers
-I could have removed them and saved 2 bucks, so I just kept them

Microsoft(R) Windows Vista(TM) Home Basic w/ Service Pack 1
-I was pleasantly surprised to find out Vista was only $89. I spoke with buyxg.com (they called to confirm everything and go over my special requests) and they said they don't put any bloatware on the system. Unfortunately Vista comes with a trial version of Office, but that will be the first thing I remove. This was great news compared to my ASUS gaming laptop which seemed to be filled to the teeth with extra programs.

Sony 20x Double Layer Dual Format DVD+-R/+-RW + CD-R/RW Drive
-I didn't get a Blueray player because I don't really buy movies. If anything I'll just download them so I thought I'd save some money.

Professional Wiring for All WIRINGs Inside The System Chasis with High Performance Thermal Compound on CPU
-I don't really know what this means but for $19 they got me on it... can't hurt (I hope!)

FREE! 4GB USB 2.0 Portable Flash Drive
-It's free, why would I say no?

Standard Warranty: 1-Year Limited Warranty Plus Life-Time Technical Support
-It's included and I do have a little piece of mind knowing that someone who knows what they're doing is putting this together. When I talked with the guy from buyxg.com he said that they build over 120 units a day, so I doubt they'll be scratching their heads putting together my system.

And all this can be yours for the price of between 1750-1800 (including shipping, no taxes since out of state)!

Thanks for the help! It ended up being more expensive than originally expected, but with selling my laptop for $500 I'm only out 1250-1300... still hurts, but hopefully this rig will be good for at least 3-4 years.