[lowerstreet]

Thanks for the help so far with the practical advice.

I will replace the GPU with 660:
ASUS GeForce GTX 660 DirectCU II 980MHZ 2GB 6.0GHZ GDDR5 2xDVI HDMI DP HDCP PCI-E DX11 Video Card ($244.99)

Will also replace the Cooler with:
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus Direct Touch 4 Heatpipe Heatsink AM2 AM3 LGA1366 LGA1155 LGA1156 120mm (29.98)

Switched to WD Hard Drive
Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6GB/S 7200RPM 64MB Cache 3.5in Hard Drive OEM ($78.98)

Went for 256 GB SSD:
Crucial M4 CT256M4SSD2 2.5in 256GB SATA3 MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) ($199.99)

I'll keep the i7 3770K for now, though I agree it might not be worth the extra hundred.

I guess my remaining decisions would be:

1. It was suggested I get a cheaper $150 motherboard. Any suggestions? What should I be looking for?

2. I like the look of the Carbide case suggested above, and it's a bit smaller than than Antec P280 I had originally.

Carbide Series 300R Compact ATX Case, Black ($79.99)

My only worry is the reviews said there was only USB 3.0. There is one program/device I use which only work on USB 2.0.

This may be a dumb question. I know desktops usually have USB plug-ins at the front and the back. Is that all from the case? Or does it have something to do with the motherboard?

3. Power supply - the NCIX suggested build didn't have anything for this, so I don't know where to start.

4. Are Blu-ray drives both burners and readers? Is this useful instead of a plain DVD drive, or could I easily just get an external one in the future?

5. Am I missing anything else?
I don't need to choose anything for the Ethernet? I do have a cable that I can plug in. I usually use wireless on my laptop but I guess I will need to buy an external USB adapter for that?

Thanks.