Perhaps you could help me a bit, though. I'm trying to conserve as much money as I can naturally, so I'm considering using my current case instead of getting a new one. This means the new motherboard would have to be a micro ATX instead of a standard sized one. Is this OK or should I just go for a new case and the standard ATX MOBO?

I think the MOBO is probably the most important piece to select wisely as far as future upgradeability goes, but at the moment, there seems like a lot of advanced tech that is really not useful but costs a lot. Like the 6.0 Gb/s SATA interface instead of the standard 3.0. I don't think current HDs have even maxed out the 3.0 tech yet, so I'm not sure if I should spend the extra money for 6.0, even if it's more future-oriented.

But yeah, other than the mobo ($230), here are my proposed specs:

i7 Bloomfield 950 3.06 GHz ($295)
4 GB Corsair SDRAM (1600 MHz) (will upgrade to 8 GB when I have more monies lolz) ($85)
Radeon 5670 1 GB GDDR5 ($75) - not the best but works for me.
Corsair 650 W PSU ($70)
64 GB Crucial SSD for OS and a few programs ($130)
1 TB Western Digital Black for storage ($80)
Arctic Silver Freezer ($40)

I'm probably just going to keep my DVD and DVD-RW drives and transfer them over to the new computer. I might get Blu-Ray later, but no rush. Obviously reusing my monitor as well. And my TV Tuner.

If I've calculated correctly, that's under 1000 USD out of pocket for me (possibly less, I only looked at prices on newegg), which is about what my budget would be. Maybe I will get 8 GB RAM now, not sure. OH, I will also try to part out my old stuff, like the classic P4 3.6 GHz that its current running, as well as the old graphics card, mobo, etc. Might get me back $100-150, I don't really know. Better that it's reused than thrown out, though.

I will use the computer MOSTLY for work-related stuff, browsing the web, etc., but I want to turn it into a HTPC and hook up an HDTV to it (sometime) and I do some occasional gaming as well. So the specs might be overkill, but whatevs. Hopefully you can give me some suggestions, then.