You've got a lot there, and I don't have near enough time to address it all.
64-bit is required these days, as 32-bit can't address enough RAM. There simply aren't enough addresses in binary with only 32-bit addressing. So 64-bit is required in any system you will build. You can still buy 32-bit stuff, but there isn't any point to it anymore. You'd be better off sticking with your 5-year-old machine.
As far as price points, here are two good articles from Tom's Hardware, on best CPUs and GPUs for your money based on pricing seen this month. They link to other more detailed, in-depth reviews, and this is a good place to start:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/bes ... ,2971.htmlhttp://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/bes ... ,2964.htmlRAID - I freaking love it. Every PC I build has a 4 disk RAID 5 array, as big as I can afford. Useful for data storage, backups, redundancy, and lots of space for downloading TV shows.
Modern processors are using DDR3 RAM. It is fast, but doesn't have as tight of timings as DDR2. The overall speed makes up for it.
If price is no object, I'll buy nVidia over AMD/ATI any day. However, AMD (bought out ATI) has been kicking nVidia's ass in the graphics card department for several years now. Their products are faster and cheaper. They don't have as many bells and whistles, however. nVidia's supplemental features like PhysX and others make a huge difference, and when compared on that level blow AMD out of the water. The downside is lots of games don't support it.
AMD's cards will now power multiple monitors off of one card, so instead of needing two or three cards from nVidia, you can use one AMD, if you are interested in that.
Processors, I wouldn't go with anything but an Intel. Intel lost a lot of ground to AMD once, but have reclaimed their top spots and aren't letting go. They've been absolutely throttling the life out of AMD processors the past several years. In my mind, AMD has become the budget CPU, akin to the "Celeron" of yesteryear that everyone hated.
Clock speed is much less important, but still a large factor. P4s were routinely breaking 3GHz speeds years and years ago, and no one has yet sold a mass marketed 4Ghz chip. The chips couldn't handle the heat to keep going faster and faster and faster. They can still make them go faster, but efficiency just bogs down. The faster the chip, the hotter the chip. The hotter the chip, the more juice it needs because it becomes less efficient. The more juice it needs, the hotter it gets. It is like approaching the speed of light. The closer you get, the worse your returns on your energy. That is why they have instead turned to multi-core processing. It helps a tremendous amount for programs that take advantage of it. Prior to Windows 7, it wasn't really a huge help. Now it makes a drastic difference. All modern games utilize them pretty well. The specs for SWTOR require at least a dual-core.
You are going to need a massive power supply these days. 700W+. I'd go with an 800 or 900 Watt one. Only buy those that are rated 80%+ efficiency. They are easy to find. At those power rates, anything else just costs too damn much to run.
Don't buy less than 8GB of RAM if you are going to build a system. You may not need it all now, but RAM is still pretty cheap, and you always end up needing more and more.
Don't skimp on your processor or GPU. You get what you pay for. Have a budget in mind, and build towards that. On the same token, don't skimp on your motherboard. You'll regret that too.
Get a CoolerMaster HAF (High Air flow) case. They are rugged, well built, tool-less (don't need all the screws to mount everything - except for the mobo). They also look sweet. The biggest kicker is they are the quietest cases I've ever seen. They are full of holes, and have three huge fans that come standard, plus room to expand. They move a ton of air and cool extremely well, allowing your fans to run slowly and quietly. I can generally hear the electricity in my monitor humming louder than I can my PC in my HAF, mounted on top of my desk next to my monitor, at full load. It is amazing. The thing that will kill the quiet is the addon fans some motherboards put on the southbridge these days. Those things suck, and are loud. Don't use them. You won't need it anyway. The case is that good.
For just about everything else, see that thread I did a detailed, itemized listing of components a month or two back for Daktar.
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I like taking the lazy way out when possible 