k. well, i finally decided. here is my setup:
Asus A8V Deluxe Via Socket 939 ATX Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Processor
Western Digital / Caviar SE / 200GB / 7200 / 8MB / SATA-150
SimpleTech 1024MB PC4200 DDR2 533MHz Memory
NEC ND3520 / 16x8x16x DVD+-RW/CDRW
it is fucking expensive, so i am gonna think on it for a while, but i think that it would be a good bet.
That's a really good system. Especially the motherboard is good, I have it as well and I can't complain.
As for the harddisk: Seagate also makes really good ones and they have 5 years warranty (at least around here). And they're dead silent. I have two 200gb Seagates and I don't hear a thing.
Something Important: Your RAM is wrong. Athlon64 systems don't need DDR2 nor will they work with it! Get simple DDR 400mhz RAM, that's the right one. Faster DDR RAM won't make your system faster, actually, depending on the RAM it might make it slower.
A good choice is the Corsair ValueSelect 2x512MB DDR 400mhz kit. (Linky:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145440)
I have it and I can say: It definitely works with the motherboard, it's rather cheap and I have tested it thoroughly with Memtest and it found no errors whatsoever. I wouldn't worry too much about timings or voltage if you're not into some serious overclocking.
Also, if you want 1gb of RAM, get 2x512MB, not a single 1024MB. The CPU has dual-channel support and for this, it needs two identical RAMs for that. The manual explains what RAM slots they should be put in, that's important as well.
Dual-channel makes your system quite a bit faster, so I would definitely go for that.
As for the case: I recommend the Chieftech CS-601 series. They might look as cool, but they're solid cases, they have excellent cooling and lots of space and hardware is very easy to install.
Also, you most likely need a new PSU (power supply unit). Get one with 400W or more (depends on your video card - the faster your video card is, the more power your PSU should be able to supply). Those brands make pretty good PSUs: Enermax, OCZ (the ModStream series), Fortron, Elan Vital (I have one of these - rather expensive but extremely efficent and silent), Zalman.