New Gaming PC - Help before buying this weekend!

Hi everyone,

I've recently been noticing that my PC doesn't meet my needs (newest games aren't running well and some photo apps take a bit long to execute certain tasks). I was actually thinking of just doing a CPU, RAM and MB upgrade but I've decided on upgrading more...Since I've used Tom's hardware for all my previously builds, I'm hoping to get everyone's expert help again.

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: 1-2 weeks (Thinking of taking advantage of Labor Day deals)

BUDGET RANGE: 1200 - Max 1500 (after taxes, shipping, etc)

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming, Movies, Internet, Office

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor, Speakers, OS, Case, DVD Drives (although see comments below)

PREFERRED WEBSITE FOR PARTS: Newegg.com

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: US

PARTS PREFERENCES: Intel - Quad Core CPU

OVERCLOCKING: No

SLI OR CROSSFIRE: No

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1680 x 1050 for now...May get a bigger monitor down the road

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS : I have a NAS for all my documents, pictures and movies so I'd rather get a SSD for speed than high capacity hard drives.

Also, my current system is:
Core2Duo E6600 @2.4Ghz
ASUS P5B Deluxe
NVIDIA GeForce 8800GTS 512MB
2GB RAM (CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-550 550W ATX12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready Power Supply
3 x 320GB Barracuda 7200.10 SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drives
2 x DVD-RW Drives
Antec Performance One P180B Black 0.8mm 4 x HDD ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

I'm thinking of two options here...
1) Repurpose my old machine as a HTPC. If I do this, I'll need to buy a case too
2) I try and sell off some old components and basically gut everything and start from scratch

What do you think? Would the above system make a good HTPC after i get a cable tuner or should i just go with option 2?