Ok, so I'll spare the long story, but my old PC completely died a while back, and after trying my best to hold out for a while, my patience is at an end and its time to put something together...

Maximum budget: aprox. $1500

Usage: Primarily gaming, possibly some video editing in the future.

Components to potentially re-use:

Lian Li PC-V1000 Case
Decent sound card
Monitor
Windows Vista Ultimate
CD/DVD drive(s)

(I have mixed feelings about the case. I would be interested in some feedback, I did notice that you can replace the standard side panel with the one from the "Plus II" version and add the side fan, which might improve the cooling...)

One thing I'd ideally like to include in this new build would be some way to connect my multiple old drives without too much hassle in order to use them for extra storage. If this has to be some sort of external solution due to the fact that many of them are old, IDE drives, I can live with that.

Anyway, any help or advice would be GREATLY appreciated, thanks in advance.

For the old IDE hard drives there is an option of using IDE to Sata converters, but judging by how you said there are multiple drives I guess using something like a controller or raid card will suit your needs better.

Here's a link on newegg to the area to find them, since I have no specialty in this area I won't recommend anything.
http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCat [...] RAID-Cards

The resolution of your monitor will determine what kind of graphics solution you'll need, so please mention its resolution. Also, if the IDE drives aren't very big, just get a couple of Samsung Spinpoint F1 drives (the 750GB seem to have a great GB/$ ratio, and perform very well) and copy the data.

For $1500, you could easily get a nice E8400, P45 mobo, 4GB of some decent PC2-6400, and a 4870 and still have plenty of cash to spare for the PSU, hard drives, CPU cooler, etc.

Just bumping this up as I'm still looking for some more opinions, thanks to those who have taken the time to reply so far.