Do you have a preference for form factor? I've always built towers (full or mid). My latest two systems however are Small Form Factor. And I don't have any plans to go back to a tower for a personal/workstation system any time soon.

Motherboards: have always been fond of ASUS. Never had any problems. Have done Intel as well as AMD Athlon.

Memory: Buy what you can afford and what your mobo will use. Underspecing your memory is going to cost you the performance you may be paying a premium for with your mobo and processor. For instance, hyperthreading CPUs with 533 or 800MHz front side bus.

Someone in another forum I sometimes read posted a link to a decent PC building FAQ. If I can find it I'll update in here.

How many plexi windows do you want in your case and how much are you willing to pay for neon, glowing fans and VFD or LCD?

Save yourself some cash and buy one model down from the top CPU model from whichever manufacturer. Also keep in mind that people will recommend slightly different components depending on whether you intend to run Windows or Linux. That may be worth considering. But as long as you choose ATI for graphics I'll back you on anything else you decide.

Current mobos have so much integrated that you'll likely not be looking at component based NIC, firewire, USB 2 nor perhaps audio. From personal experience, pass on a floppy drive and go treat yourself to a few milkshakes or something.

My 2 cents. I'm waiting till I get settled at my new place before picking up CPU and memory for my "other" Shuttle system currently living under my coffee table as a shelf.

Bruno