The sub 1000$ gaming PC build

So you've got a grand hitching in your pocket... let's build a kick-ass gaming PC!
Prices comes from newegg.com as the time of writing.

CPU
First off, we need a powerful, multicore all around CPU and Intel Core 2 Duo's are all the rage right now. And because we are on a budget we won't get an extreme version.
I went with the 2.13 Ghz 2mb L2 cache E6400.
I originally wanted to go with the E6600 but our budget is restraint.
It ships for about 200$


Motherboard
So we want a Core 2 duo board (obviously), that has a 1066 FBS since the next generation of Intel CPU's, Penryn, will need it. We also need SLI upgrade path, overclocking features and more.So for this build I wanted to go with the EVGA 680i SLI but the budget was not there.
I choose the bang for the buck, nVidia 650i chipset, dual 16x pci-e Asus P5N-E SLI.
It's about 125$, nice price tag!
Don't forget memory!
I had to it...
So we want 2gig since more and more games needs it. We also want DDR 800mhz with low latency's. So I went with Corsairs flagship XMS2's.
They come in a dual 2x1gb package at 168$.

Hard Drive
We need a massive Hard disk to install all those space hungry...games.
And we are pretty lucky as prices are dropping.
A 500gb, yep 500 gig Western Digital Caviar SE 16mb cache S-ata II 3gb/s will do the job.134$
Graphics Card
It's a gaming PC we're building so we will need a beefy GPU to cope with our Core 2.
I wanted it to be DX10 ready, so uncheck ATI from here since the haven't realesed there R600 yet and since Nvidia just resealed a 320mb version of there Geforce 8800GTS, and they haven't released there mid-range part, I went with th EVGA Geforce 8800GTS 320 mb.
At 279$, it's not cheap but the cheapest DX10 part right now.
DVD drive
So since not all games are online buyable, you still need a dvd drive !
I went with the LG Black 18X light scribe.
It burns and read all formats and DVD's at 18X, no HD-DVD/Blue-ray support here...32$



Power Supply
You need something to power up those power-hungry parts and you want reliability and stability.The Antec True power trio is SLI ready with three 12v rails, 650 watts of power and all the bling bling at 109$ pretty awesome!

Case
Last but not least, the most important part, the case.
You need good airflow and cooling, lots of space, solid , good looking case well
the Antec nine hundred is all the rage right now with LOTS of cooling and space
It's easy to work with and looks great!124$ not bad!

This is it! You might have noticed that there is no sound card as are budget was tight but for 69$ more you get the Sound Blaster X-FI Xtreme gamer. The onboard audio does a great job.
The E6400 is easily overclockable, even with stock cooling, you can get past the 3Ghz bar without a sweat!
So it comes around 1200$, not bad for a Dual core, DX 10 ready (Crysis oh yes), 500gb, 2 gigs of ram PC!!