HOLY SHIT 1800?? That would be near 2000 without shipping after tax. Im in the process of putting together a far better system for the same amount of money or a little less, but would blow that one out of the water.
140 = THermaltake Case. Built like a tank or can get lighter versions
300 = AMD 64 +3500 Processor.
200 = Swiftech Water cooling kit (would be better if custom)
200 = 2 160GB SATA Seagate Hard Drives
160 = DFI SOcket 939 Ultra Motherboard
220 = 1GB Crucial Ballistix DDR400 Memory
50 = Logitech X530 5.1 Surround SOund (very loud for regular use)
90 = Plextor Dual Layer Burner
30 = Lite On DVD ROm
230 = Nvidia GeForce 6600GT Video card (good enough card for non-hardcore gamers) can get an ATI X800 or Geforce 6800 Ultra for another 100-200.
110 = OCZ 520 Watt Power supply
This is around 1700 shipped and taxed. Rough estimates but very close to what you will actually pay. You have $300 for a screen. Dont know how much media center costs but i think another 200 would be enough, and if your a student at a college, might even get a discount at from the school. Anyway 2200 for a VERY VERY nice system that can easily be overclocked to beat ANYTHING out there offered by Dell, Sony, etc. The AMD 64 3500 is very stable and can be easily overclocked, espeically with water cooling, to FX-55 levels which cost 900-1000 for just the CPU itself.