How much do you want to spend? (I hate asking that question, but if you have deep pockets, you might consider a DDR solution).
Also, what is your timetable? If you can wait until the end of March, I would suggest it so you can get one of the new 266MHz CPUs. This of course will work great in either a DDR RAM based system or the A7V133 mentioned above using PC133 SDRAM. In either case, this processor is what will give you the best performance.
If you want something that is not so "bleading edge" the A7V133 mentioned above is a good solution, using PC133 DIMMs versus the more expensive DDR RAM based motherboards and DIMMs.
I personally like the IBM 75GXP, 7200RPM ATA-100 drives. Great performance and unlike anything else with an IBM sticker, reasonably priced.
As for your video, it really depends on a few factors:
Are you a die hard gamer looking for the best "Gaming" card or are you mainly an office appication user with some casual gaming, or are you doing Video Clip editing or CAD? These issues are real important as some cards are really good at some things, and not so good at others. I would suggest touring Tom's Video section and reading the reviews for more details.
I have some customers that won't take anything short of a Hercules Ultra II card for their gaming, but then have others that just want to run business applications and the occasional game or 3D graphics application. The price difference for adequately fulfilling these two scenarios is scary, so I suggest taking your time and doing some research. Fortunately, there are a lot of computer stores out there where you can at least look at product. I would also suggest checking out the FAQ's to find out if there any compatibility issues with the programs you want to run. There are some serious problems going around with certain combinations of equipment, not to mention faulty drivers for some applications. Take your time and make sure it does everything you want before you buy.
Sound is another really hard thing to advise on. I would go into staples and listen to some of the speakers they have on demo. Staples (at least here) has their speakers hooked into a Soundblaster Live! Demo system so you can get a good idea of what the speakers will sound like with a 1024 voice soundcard. This too could be an issue in your system, as some sound cards (specifically the SoundBlaster Live! Cards) are having troubles when used with some AGP video cards and motherboards. While Staples doesn't have everything, they carry most of the entry stuff and some mid-level units with subs. This will at least get you started so when you hear a 5 speaker surround home theatre system that blows you off the planet, you'll have heard other solutions to compare it to.
Steve Benoit
Stable Technologies
'The way IT should be!'
Well, I'm about to build a new system and I've gotten lots of advice from here.
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