http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=12200BD2787&vpn=BX80557E6600&manufacture=INTEL 
$369 Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4GHz dual core processor

Forgot to recommend a CPU cooler the first time, the one that comes with the box version is generally sneered at and makes rather a lot of noise.  I own this one:
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=15210AC4527
$55 Zalman CNPS9500, very cool, Very Quiet (and the CPU fan tends to be the biggest single source of noise in most PCs)

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=10530BD5826&vpn=P5LD2-VM&manufacture=ASUS 
$126 ASUS P5LD2-VM motherboard

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=11180BD6142&vpn=VS1GBKIT667D2&manufacture=CORSAIR
$133 2x512MB (1GB) RAM 240-pin, although you might cough up a little more for 2GB:
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=11180BD5443&vpn=VS2GBKIT667D2&manufacture=CORSAIR 
$260 2x1GB (2GB) RAM 240-pin

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=11610BD3267&vpn=256-P2-N624-AR&manufacture=EVGA
$212 EVGA Nvidia GeForce 7900 GS KO, a very nice video card (this is higher quality preview and much smoother pan/scroll in preview window)

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=14120DR9199&vpn=ST3200820AS&manufacture=SEAGATE
$89 Seagate Barracuda 200GB 7200RPM Serial ATA 2 hard disk (the good kind)

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=10720AC5131 
$123 BFG Tech 650 watt power supply

http://www.directcanada.com/category/?minorcatid=1517 
Some case for about $60

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=14330DR4316 
$38 Sony DVD+RW (reads, writes CDs and DVDs)

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=00110DR4377 
$7 3.5" floppy drive

Grand total:
$1212 for 1GB
$1339 for 2GB

My Freebies