$1600 for a desktop

It's been 8 years since I've bought a new computer, and I think it's about time I get a new one and I'm willing to spend about $1600. My friend recommended that I get a PC from Digital Storm or War Machine. I also looked at Velocity Micro, VoodooPC, Falcon Northwest and Alienware. So far I'm leaning towards Digital Storm or War Machine as they seem like they have the best deals and customer ratings for them are pretty good. I've seen a few horror stories about Falcon Northwest and Alienware.

Oh and a monitor, keyboard, mouse, speaker system, and cd/dvd drive are not included in the price I stated. I figure I'll just take those from the system I currently have.

Well any recommendations would be very appreciated. Thanks!

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I'm definitely having some second thoughts now that everyone here says I should build it myself and save a few hundred bucks. I've googled "build pc" and there seems to be many tutorials. Is there any specific tutorial any of you have tried and recommend? And how much money have you guys saved by building it on your own?

And regarding the type of PC I want, I'm looking for a system that can handle high quality video files (ie. 1080p mkvs), next gen games such as Unreal Tournament 3 and Crysis, and CPU and memory that will hopefully function well for another 6 years. I don't have a need for video editing, picture editing, rendering, or the like.

Also, I was checking out Pricewatch and am a bit confused on the prices. How come the core 2 extreme qx6850 costs $910, while the core 2 extreme qx6700 costs $1100? Shouldn't the later models be priced higher? Same thing with the intel core 2 duo e6700 ($319) and intel core 2 duo e6850 ($280). Everything on the e6700 looks inferior, but it costs more?

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Thanks a lot for your in-depth post TheReverend. I'm currently reading up on all the things you suggested and am very excited! About the hard drives, I'm thinking of going for 2 Seagate Barracuda 320GB or 2 Western Digital hard drives. Do you recommend using a RAID setup? I've read some stuff about it and the different levels you can set it to, but does it offer any worthwhile advantages over two separate hard drives?

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Hmm well I'm wondering how my system will run if I don't use RAID. Would I have to logout of an account and onto another one to use the second hard drive if I didn't have RAID set up? (ie. Say I want to download some video files, can I choose what hard drive it goes to) Also is your setup called RAID-0+1 and how hard was it for you to set it up?

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I almost have a completed list of all the components I need, but when should I actually buy my parts? Should I buy it during Black Friday and try to get some major discounts or should I purchase it after the holiday season when companies release their newest components (ie. Wolfsdale & Yorkfield CPUs)?

If I buy an SLI capable motherboard, is it ok just to use one video card and then add an additional one later if I should ever need/want it. Also, how many case fans do you guys recommend adding if I use this ATX Full Case?

Newegg.com - Thermaltake Armor Series VA8000BWS Black Aluminum / Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case - Retail

I was speaking idiomatically.