PC Magazine "Bang for your Buck" PC

PC Magazine just had a feature where they listed a number of components for the most up-to-date PC at the lowest price. I'm not much of a tech guy, so I want to know your thoughts on this:

Antec Sonata III Case $109
Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 CPU $330
Gigabyte P35-D53R Motherboard $175
Kingston HyperX 2GB PC2-6400 DDR2 RAM $130
2.0 ReadyBoost $28
PNY XLRB 8800GTS Graphics Card $300
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Sound Card $90
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB SATA HD $79
Sony DRU-830A Optical Drive $58
Ultra Products MD2 5.25" bay Media Reader $30
Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 $30
Logitech G5 Laser Mouse $44
Samsung 226BW Monitor $315
Logitech X-240 Speakers $39
Vista Home Premium (MAYBE - last thing I need is a shitstorm over this)$109

Total: $1866

I'm thinking about building this, but I'd like to get some different takes on it other than the ones presented by the writer of the article. Some details:
1. I plan on using it for gaming. How good is this set-up for that?
2. Are there any components you suggest I replace?
3. Is a laser mouse a good investment? Last time I checked, they were still kinda buggy...
4. Oh lawd, please don't start an OS war.

All help is appreciated.

bout the OS, i would go with Windows XP. XP>Vista>ME though linux>xp>vista>me in my opinion. if you wernt a gamer, i would recomend linux