ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM
Item #: N82E16827135204

XFX FX-795A-TNBC Radeon HD 7950 Black 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
Item #: N82E16814150601

CORSAIR Professional Series HX850 (CMPSU-850HX) 850W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 80 PLUS SILVER Certified Modular Active PFC ...
Item #: N82E16817139011

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL7Q-16GBXH
Item #: N82E16820231442

SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC256B/WW 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Item #: N82E16820147164

(bundle)
? Intel Core i7-3770 Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I73770
Item #: N82E16819116502
? MSI Z77A-GD55 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
Item #: N82E16813130644

Total: ~$1400

I haven't picked a case yet, but for just the hardware, I've got the above. I'll probably end up with an nVidia 680 (suggestions?), but haven't picked a specific one of those and the above card did look pretty good. Also, the i7 is probably overkill but I know the Elder Scrolls games are usually throttled by the processor (at least when the graphics are already covered)--but if there's a better suggestion for playing Elder scrolls games (a heavily modded, script intensive Skyrim), I'm all ears. This machine is just for gaming, so please let me know what some better options are without drastically increasing the price.

things to note, I've already the bought the SSD (it was way on sale last week) and am in need of a hd but haven't picked that out, either.
Actually, I think I'm going to scrap my current plans of buying a second monitor and use that money to get this video card.

EVGA 04G-P4-3687-KR GeForce GTX 680 FTW+ w/Backplate 4GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

sure, it's a bit overkill, but it should last me like 4 years. how does the rest of the computer compare ?

Why 16 gig of ram? Isn't that just a bit of overkill?

Unless you plan on running virtual machines or doing some video editing/rendering, then 16GB is a bit overkill.

But that is a pretty nice system and should max most games.

If youre getting this just for gaming, the extra threads in the i7 wont help too much. I would go with an i5 instead if its just for games to save some money.