This stuff is easy for you gaming geniuses, but I have to focus on graduate school and my new assistantship. All I'm looking for is recommendations from the top down. I need to know everything I should buy...hardware, software, etc. Some guidelines:

1. It must also be a functional home computer. (i.e. I gotta have Microsoft Office, etc)

2. It should be good enough to run CSS, L4D, etc...not high-end games but lately my machine is getting 50+ choke everywhere on CSS and L4D crashes my system, despite barely being over the minimum requirements.

3. (Optional) It should be pretty...I like glowing lights/LEDs.

4. I would like to make it cost under $1000. If you don't think that's possible, just say. :P

Thanks in advance for the help.