[igalan]

Hi and welcome to PCTT!

First let's start with the moptherboard. This is the foundation of the computer, so we need to start from a solid one. The AV8 motherboard is a VIA K8T800 motherboard and as such it has AGP graphics port and PCI slots which are being phased out by PCI Express (PCIe). So how about the AN8 Ultra? This one has the nForce 4 chipset with 1 PCI-E X16 slot, 2 PCI-Express X1 slots and 3 PCI slots. Also you may consider the AN8 SLI which has 2 x PCI Express X16, 2 x PCI Express X1, 2 x PCI slots, so it's able to run two nVidia videocards in SLI mode. Both seem to use a heat pipe to cool the chipset, which if properly done means less noise.

Next the processor, the AMD64 3000+ is a fine processor. Since the procesor is relatively easy to replace, I would spend more of the budget on the motherbard and a bit less on the processor. In the future you can save and upgrade to a X2 processor or a faster one without having to reinstall Windows.

2x512 MB is a very good configuration. If you need to edit extremely large images, you may want to consider 2x1 GB or 4x512 MB.

For playing some games a GeForce 6600 GT will do a good job or an ATI X1600. There are many alternatives depending on the budget up to the GeForce 7800 GTX or ATI X1800 XL. What you have to consider is the desired resolution, for instance if you're going to get a TFT of 1280x1024, then a GeForce 6600 GT or ATI X1600 will do just fine (without HDR), if you need higher resolutions or want HDR (High Dynamic Range) you'll need something faster (and alot more expensive).

It's very important to get a quality PSU: Enermax, Forton, Thermaltake, Antec... A cheap PSU may lead to an unstable system, so spend some time considering the alternatives. 350W is the minimum for a modern system with 1 HDD, 1 optical drive and 1 mid-range videocard.