Got it! (finally... took me a year, lol)
i5-4670 Haswell
ASUS H87M-PRO
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2x 4GB)
Samsung 840 Pro Series 128GB
WesternDigital WD Black 500GB
SeaSonic SSR-450RM 450W
ASUS 24x DVD
Windows 7 64-bit
Fractal Design Arc mini-R2

All came in for just under $1k

I wanted to thank a bunch of you for your posts in this thread as it was extremely helpful for someone who had absolutely zero clue where to get started... & saved me from buying a Dell or similiar.