First of all, when are you planning to build this? If you can wait till 1st part to mid of Feb., you will be able to get a lot of new options and better prices.

Originally Posted by Geranium

Monitor: Samsung 226 22 Inch

You will love the 22", and you should keep the monitor you have now and run it as a 2nd, for dual screen desktop.

Case: Antec 900 (Anyone have this? Seems like all the fans would be really noisy, but keep everything super cool.)

Please be sure to consider the Antec P182. It is a way better case, and still moves tons of air + is super quiet.
I have seen it on sale for $99 at newegg. It also has a lot of features that the 900 doesn't. It is so easy to
route all your cables behind the motherboard and keep your case very clean, so even more air flows. You actually can't see any
wires in my case. It gets top reviews on tech sites, and for some reason feels more sturdy to me than the 900 when I played with
the 900 at a store. And the glowing blue lites would be cool for a while, then just get annoying. I have read posts in other forums
where people are asking for help on how to disconnect the lights.
EDIT: IT IS ON SALE AT NEWEGG RIGHT NOW!!! Crap, and I paid $139 for it. Even if you aren't building the computer for a little while longer, try and get that case while it is on sale.

Video Card: EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS (How does Crysis look on this? What settings, and what FPS?)

Guy above is right about the 8800GT being a better option for you. The 9800GX2 (which is supposed to be like 2 8800GTS together on one board) is supposed to be out by end of Feb., and that and ATI's new X2 board are going to kick ass, and supposed to be in the $450 range. Might be worth considering, but it should make the price of the GT go down, since Nvidia is really getting hammered by ATI in the Low $200 range, meaning they are cutting the price on the GT.

DVD/CD Drive: LITE-ON

Good choice going with the SATA. But spend the extra $20 and get an extra just plain SATA DVD drive. It really helps to have 2 drives.

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 3.0 Ghz

The replacement for this that is making everyone drool will be out at the end of January (see this article: http://techreport.com/discussions.x/13878).
It would be a really good idea to get one of those since they are so close to release.

Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar 250 GB

People have problems with every kind of drive. Make sure which ever one you pick has a really good rating from buyers at Newegg, and you should be pretty good.

Motherboard: Abit IP35 Pro ATX Intel

Either that one or the very well rated Asus board. Make sure it has the features you want! Spend some time on the companies website (down in the left side box on newegg) and read the fine print to make sure it is what you want.

Ram: Corsair 2GB DDR2

Without a doubt, go for 4 gigs!!! You can get really good 4 gigs of RAM for under $100, and will be worth it if you are going to run Vista! Vista uses at least a gig just by itself.

Power Supply: Cooler Master eXtreme Power 550 Max Power

I am going to go with NO on that PSU. Look at how many people have had problems with it in the newegg buyers review. The PSU is one place you should never cut corners!!!! Spend a little more now, or pay later with headaches and a glitchy computer. Look at turkish's thread in this forum as he just had to replace his.
And the # of watts doesn't matter as much depending on the brand. Buy a crap one that says 500watts and plan on only getting 375-400 once it gets hot from gaming under load. There are tons of options, just go to the whole list of PSUs on newegg, on the left click either the # of watts you want or the price range, and then sort that list by rating from other buyers. You are trying to put together an awesome computer, and you want to run the thing on a cheap ass PSU?
Look for one with the highest possible Efficiency, like in the mid 80% range.
This one for instance has good buyer reviews, plus I have read a lot of articles on Corsair's PSUs on tech review sites (I actually bought the 640watt model for my last build)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139004
and it is only $15 more than the coolermaster.

Don't forget the other little things, like you should get an aftermarket CPU cooler. I have read everywhere that the stock Intel one is a joke, and people can't believe that they finally put out an amazing CPU, and stuck it with a crap cooler. Spend the extra $40-50 and get a good one to keep your rig cool for those long gaming sessions. And get some good thermal paste to dab on between the 2. That is super important and can't be forgotten or you will fry the CPU.
And which OS version you are going with, i.e. Vista, as that will cost extra.