Ehm you might want to consider buying your pc in another country. Germany for example. I'm quite shure you could buy an outstanding PC for $2000 / $2500.
http://tweakers.net/reviews/663/4 (it's a dutch site but the system specs should be readable. It's part of the january best buy guide. it's E6600, 8800GTX system for roughly 1.947 euro's and thats including a 20" widescreen TFT
well its not that i "cant" get a very good pc for about 2000$ but im looking for an exstrem one

since its one im gonna keep for 4 or more years.
I already got a logitech g15 keyboard, logitech mx510 mouse and a 22" screen so i dont need those.
But atm im looking for something like:
Intel kentsfield 4cores (not the 2xdual-core)
At least 3gb DDR3 ram
Gotta have some new harddrives, SATA2? but i havent research into that area yet. But i will when the time comes. But im guessing that im gonna go with 2 drives internal and one external for storage.
Some 2x DX10 grafic cards either ati or nvidia, depends on whats best at that time.
And have been looking into water cooling for some time. All those fans are making alot of noise.
I'd rather buy stuff in denmark, because of some special law protection for the customers.
So i feel more safe buying hardware within the country.