Low-Buxx gaming box with POWER!

[Traak]

Edited to follow Goku's recommendations and wisdom.

I figured I would look at what would get you in the Planetside door, but be so cheap it would not make your supermodel wife mad that you didn't buy her an extra pair of Gucci's.

Under-$1000 budget. As I shopped, I was impressed by how capable a computer you could build for this little money!!!

Black Box
730W modular SLI power supply
Overclockable Motherboard
Overclockable CPU
2X4GB RAM
Blu Ray drive
CPU cooler
Three HDDS! for RAID 5 speed + data security
Monster video card
And, assuming you don't CARE about being able to drop in a second eye-watering video card in the future, here are two cards, that will also serve you very well, perhaps even better.

Case: Less than 20 bucks gets you this Gigabyte case
GIGABYTE GZ-KF03B Black SGCC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
$19.99

Power supply by RAIDMAX, modular, LED's and SLI-ready
RAIDMAX HYBRID 2 RX-530SS 530W ATX12V V2.2/ EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Modular LED Power Supply
$44.99

Motherboard: Two PCI-e 16X slots, one PCI-e 1X slot, and a PCI slot
MSI P67A-G43 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
$114.99

RAM: has a heat spreader, at least.
PNY Optima 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model MD8192KD3-1333
$43.99

Processor: Overclockable MAYHEM!!! (motherboard is overclockable)
Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K
$219.99

Storage: Cheap and fast!

HDD's:
3X250GB drives in RAID 5 gives you speed plus data security. It may not be SSD-fast but it's RAID fast with far more storage capacity in case you want to use the computer for something other than gaming. MoBo is RAID 5 capable.
$36.99 each, $110.97 total.

Since we might want to watch a movie with this baby, I totally splurged on a Blu-Ray drive.
SAMSUNG Black 12X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA Internal Blu-ray Combo Model SH-B123L LightScribe Support - OEM
$59.99

CPU cooler: fairly good price for an Editor's Choice Award winner!
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO RR-212E-20PK-R1 Continuous Direct Contact 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler Compatible with latest Intel 1366/1155 and AMD FM1/AM3+
$34.99

Video: Ah, saving the best for last. Why go so cheap on everything else? So you can have liquid-smooth graphics on that screen!
SAPPHIRE 100311-2SR Radeon HD 6970 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity
$299.99 after 30 dollar mail-in rebate

OR:
Two of these:
HIS H685F1GD Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

For a grand total of $999.89 with the single AMD 5970 dual-VPU graphics card, or $999.88 with Two mighty AMD graphics cards in Crossfire.

I was truly amazed at the heap of goodies available for less than a grand. This includes shipping inside the continental USA.