I'd recommend...
RAM: 2x4gb of corsair vengeance 1600 mhz (~$40)
CPU: either intel i5-2500k or intel i5-3570k (~$200/~$230)
and then give it a mild overclock (if you've never done this before it's crazy easy nowadays, you just load the bios, up the cpu multiplier from 33 to like 40-45, and then maybe up the voltage by like .05 or so. then make sure it's stable by running some benchmarking software. obviously an overclock can be as complicated as u want it to be if you want to get things just perfect, but at its core its very simple to do)
GPU: either amd radeon hd 6870 1gb which I'm currently using and is awesome (~$140-$150) or if you want to spend about 200 bucks, go for a gtx 560 ti.
MOBO: don't really have any recommendations here. But id say either get a z68 or z77 chipset board. Micro atx would probably suit you just fine and save you a little bit. so im guessing youll spend around $100 on a decent mobo
PSU: highly depends on the gpu you get. 500 watts would probably be enough but just barely...600 watts from a reliable brand would be greatd, 700 would be more than enough... for example http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817152042
CASE: whatever you like as long as it fits your mobo... im a fan of the cooler master storm models :P especially the storm enforcer
HDD: i really like the western digital caviar black series, a 1tb caviar black would run you about $100
or maybe get a smaller caviar black and then a large caviar green for storage if 1tb isnt going to be enough for you.
Optical drive: do you really need one? pretty much everything is available on the internet as digital content nowadays. but whatever, get some random $15 drive if you want
so $40 for ram, $200ish for cpu if you get i5-2500k, $55ish for power supply, $150 for gpu if you went with a 6870, $100 for hdd, lets say $50-$130 for case depending on how awesome you want it to look, another $100 on mobo,
youd be looking to spend around $750 ish, $700 if u can find some decent combo deals on newegg. could at least bundle cpu and mobo, tons of good combos with the 2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductCombos.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072&SubCategory=343&fromcs=0&bcmTag=0&SortField=0&PageSize=10&Page=1
Just for kicks I'll try putting together a build and see what it costs:
$180-$30 rebate = $150 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150521
$65-15% = $55 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817152042
$151-$10 rebate = $141 http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1084363
$251-$20 promo code - $10 rebate = $221 http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1106230
$150+$55+$141+$221+$90 = $657, I think everything qualifies for free shipping if you sign up for that free 1 month shoprunner trial also. So $657 + $15 if you get an optical drive and then + whatever you spend on a case
