Need a gaming pc for $1000

Does that budget include monitor /keyboard / mouse / OS? Are you reusing any parts?

I already have a monitor, keyboard and mouse, but I won't be reusing any parts. I'll need to buy the OS, too.

Well, nobody really needs to buy software these days, do they, but I prefer doing it the legal way.  

It's $24 over $1000, so if going a little over is unacceptable, then say so and I'll try changing it around a bit.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/nArF

What do you think of that?
the i5-3570K is the most expensive CPU worth buying in a gaming build with a budget far under around $2000.

The ASRock Extreme 4 is a high end board with a lower mid-end price that gives it seemingly unbeatable bang for your buck as a motherboard.

This cooler is a fairly decent cooler. Ivy Bridge doesn't respond well to getting expensive and high end coolers and thanks to a combo deal with the CPU, this cooler was almost free, so why not?

A 2x4GB DDR3-1600 1.5V kit is really all that any modern gaming build needs and this is the cheapest high-quality kit.

Western Digital Caviar Blue is easily perhaps the best consumer desktop hard drive line for 1TB and lower despite being so cheap. If you want something both more reliable and higher performance than these, you'd have to go for a more expensive enterprise/professional drive such as a new Caviar Black or VelociRapter. I chose a 500GB model assuming that you won't need more. If I assumed wrong, please say so and I'll fix it.

Crucial M4 isn't the fastest SSD around, but it's up there most of the time and it's easily one of the most reliable. Since gaming doesn't really take any advantage from a faster SSD and this is currently the cheapest of its reliability and performance consistency class AFAIK, I chose it.

This Gigabyte WindForce Radeon 7950 is easily the best $300 or less gaming graphics card available overall.

This RoseWill Challenger case is one of the most well-reviewed and highest rated cheap cases that you'd ever find. With excellent air flow and good build quality for such a cheap case, it was a no-brainer, especially with the combo deal that it has on the DVD drive.

This Antec EarthWatts Green 650W power supply is an above-average quality PSU with good efficiency. It's not a record breaker or anything like that, but it'll get the job done reliably.

Also, I threw in a copy of Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 x64.

Oh, going a little over $1000 is acceptable, I'll just flip my couch.   I can't say for myself if that's a good build since I have no experience, but the specs definitely look worth the money. What sort of performance should I expect from it? Like what's the highest settings I can expect on some recent games etc?

The total is really going too be even high than the $26 over it's more like $62 over the op budget. Some of the amazon prices are wrong. The psu is $73 and the ssd is $103.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/nAFt

Okay, switched the PSU and SSD out. Now it's $34 over. Added bonus, now it has a modular PSU, albeit slightly less efficient..

It'll max out Skyrim while also having room for some decent MSAA at 1080p.

Oh, that'll definitely be enough, then. Thanks for the help, I'll go look up some guides on building stuff like this before ordering any parts, though!

Glad to help (sorry about missing that Amazon price issue).

+1. A very good build.