First Build

No need for that CPU (it's for gaming, right?). A i5-750 or even an AMD 955/965 will do just as well. That means taking 4GB RAM, which is still more than enough for gaming.
Spend the money saved on a better graphics card (try to get an ATI 5850, or at least a 5770). That'll greatly improve performance.

Are you sure about the velociraptor? The difference with regular HDD's has become small. Get a Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB, it's nearly as fast. Add an SSD if you really want speed (you can wait till prices drop, that should happen in the near future).

Case, PSU and DVD are fine.

Win7-64 Pro (For XP Mode if nothing else) - $33 more
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] -_-Product

MoBo - For now the i5's offer a competitive alternative but the upgrade path with the i7 is more futureproof IMO both from future CPU choices as well as from the extra bandwidth given for future GFX choices in I / Xfire.

Memory - If considering OC'ing, get DDR1600 w/ the lowest timings you can afford. CAS 6 will cost you over $200 for 3 x 2GB, CAS 7 drops off considerably.

HD's - Any 500 GB *per platter* drive. (For example in a 1 TB drive, ya want two 500GB platters as opposed to three 333 GB platters). Forget the Raptors.

GFX - In the $155 price range, consider the 4870 and 5770 as alternatives.
http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] 464-4.html

Case / PSU - Consider the Antec 900/902 w/ TP series PSU's or the CM HAF 922 w/ Corsair TX series PSU's - 550-650 more than enough for one GFX card. If you / he are thinking of XFire / SLI, the consider the Antec 1200 w/ CP-850 PSU / -850 or the CM HAF 932 w/ Corsair HX-850....those PSU's are a bit oversized but I left some room for future GFX upgrades and some significant OC'ing.

HSF - pick one of these:

http://www.frostytech.com/top5heatsinks.cfm
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index. [...] itstart=15
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article30-page1.html