Here's my parts list for anyone wondering:
http://pcpartpicker.com/b/ghqkcf
Sorry for the novel below!
Squiggler, I built it for gaming and graphic design, and also possibly for school. (: A regular laptop (which is what I had before) sucked for both of these purposes... With my new computer I can play most games on the highest settings. I also have a 23" monitor with an awesome video card so colors for my graphics/pixels look way more vibrant and crisp! Not to mention a bigger screen makes it so much easier to work on things!
The great thing about building my own computer is that if a part breaks, I won't have to either A) buy a new computer or B) send it to the repair shop. Instead I can simply change out the part since I know how! (: I've went through countless laptops because of parts breaking, and getting someone to fix it was totally pointless because they charge so much I'd be better off buying a new laptop, which is what I did in the past! Now I don't have to.
It took me about an hour to build it (not counting all the times my lil cupcake distracted me) and another 30 mins - 1 hour to install windows 7 and the different drives for my video card, internet adapters, etc.
My overall experience building a PC was great, but I don't know if I'd recommend it to anyone. Like I said before, it was really scary knowing how expensive these parts were and if I broke something, I'd have to wait that much longer to ship it back and get another one shipped to me. I made a few small mistakes here and there that I quickly figured out, and as I mentioned a few times I thought I had broken something. I honestly didn't think my computer was going to boot up because that's just my luck, but thank heavens it did!
If anyone here ever does think about building their own PC though, be sure to research, research, research!