[Thermodyne]

High end

FX 53
NForce 3pro chipset
1 gig of ram (reg DDR400)
Pair of Raptor drives in a stripe set.
Large SATA single drive for storage
Best ATI card that I can buy for 300 bucks. (Costs too much to stay on the top edge)

Or Mid range

Pentium M
Asus board
1gig DDR 266
Single SATA drive
Best Vid card for less than $200

Or Low range

Fastest AMD chip that $125 will buy
Nforce 2 chipset W/onboard Vid.
512megs of DDr that matches the CPUfront side buss.
Single SATA drive

If I had another grand to dump, I'd put a SCSI UW320 raid 5/3 in the top end system.

The rest of the stuff is just what ever turns the user on. If you don't hot rod it, then 350 watts will do you just fine and a $25 case with $10 worth of fans will cool as well as a $400 one. Sound, I can't hear very well anymore, so no opinion. All of my stuff is onboard or none at all. I tend to use what ever CD reader matches the case color and is on sale. Burners are usually ASUS. Plextor is nice but costs a lot.