New Build - Seeking Help and Advice

[Diddlemouse]

1. Are you building this computer yourself or having one built for you (Like HP, Alienware, or even a small shop)?
Building this myself.

2. What is your budget and does that include shipping/taxes?
Less than $1000 including shipping, Oregon has no sales tax woot.

3. Where do you live (Please list town, state, and country)?
Portland, OR

4. What do you need this computer to do (like gaming, Photoshop, and so on)?
Gaming is its sole purpose in life.

5. What parts will you need for the computer? List what parts specifically, saying you need everything will not do.
GPU, CPU, Motherboard, mouse, headset, RAM and Monitor. Heatsink maybe?

6. Are you reusing any parts for this computer? If so say what parts (make and model).
Western Digital SATA hard disk 150gb OS and 600GB data, CD/DVD drives, keyboard, speakers and monitor. I am using a Zalman copper heatsink, cannot for the life of me remember the fan size.

7. What kind of monitor/resolution do you have or want to get to use for the computer?
Currently on a 19" acer, will upgrade to 21.5" at later date for full 1920x1080 res or I will do the upgrade immediately if within my budget.

8. Do you have already have a OS or do you need one? What OS is that?
Windows 7, do not want windows 8.

9. What are you looking for the motherboard to have feature wise? Like SLI, Crossfire, Firewire, USB 3.0, Sata 6.0 Gb/s, and so on.
SATA a must; not entirely certain of the other features, don't think I have ever used them so not terribly important.

10. Any plans to overclock the CPU or GPU?
I would certainly like to. I havent OCed a system yet havent really ever had the need.

11. What time kind of time frame are you planning on ordering these parts?
Waiting to finalize a sale on my old car, once that goes through I will buy these parts. In regards to a time frame, it could be anywhere between a week (hopefully) and (hopefully not) two to three months. If I cant sell the car then I plan to just spoil myself for christmas. Id rather my christmas be in the next couple of weeks obviously.

No Radeon, no AMD. Sticking true to Nvidia and Intel chipsets.

Also my case is a Cooler Master Cosmos (its huge I can fit anything in that beast) so size is of little concern. What I really want is to build something that will keep me playing games for the next 3-5 years. I don't want to buy something that's already super dated, but I understand that 2-3 years down the line I wont be running things on ultra high settings anymore but for the time being I do want ultra settings. Any advice and input would be hugely appreciated.