Case: I don't want a built in power supply. I will also look at some Antec cases, they looked good.
Power Supply: How about
this guy? I couldn't find any Just PC stuff that was more than 600 watts. For 620 watts,
this guy looks real good. Powerful enough?
The processor: 2.4 GHz seems to be a sweet-spot on price/performace. It's the cheapest Conroe with a 4MB cache, but its $200 less than the next level up, which is only 260 MHz faster.
GPU: Saving $90 would be nice, but futureproofing and, more than anything, quieter, sounds awesome. The 1900XT in my Mac Pro is easily the loudest component. It's a really tough call, though - the 7950GTXs are great, but I'll roll with the 8800GTS.
Mobo: now I'm torn. With Corsair XMS RAM and a Core 2 Duo, do you think it would be better to go with Intel or a cheaper Asus?
RAM: On that note, is that RAM completely overkill? RAM is very important, but I wanna know if I am spending entirely too much for this fancy RAM with heat spreaders and blinking LEDs...
Looks like I can save some bucks with these guys.
Fan: I am totally willing to spend an extra $52 to make my baby run cooler/quieter.
OS: alright, screw Vista. I'll wait for SP1 and reallocate/save that $120.