As for video card, Outpost has a great deal right now on a Geforce FX 5900 (not the Ultra) by BFG... comes with a lifetime warranty and 24/7 technical support. I ordered mine at 5:30PM and got it at 9:30 the next morning! (overnight shipping $9.75!). But... haven't had a chance to try it out yet as my mainboard blew up. I'm using a backup PC (win95 Pentium 110mhz )

As for RAM, I always ordered Crucial until I found there are problems with Crucial registered memory and AMD Tyan boards (My dead board is a Tyan dual athlon). I hear Corsair is a good brand. Check pricewatch.com...

Also, I believe AMD and Intel are pretty close as for the amount of heat they put out. Intel has a larger physical die size, so it's easier to cool, however.