Thoughts about what's been said so far:
DDR3 vs DDR2: For system memory the difference is negligable. However, for video cards there is a much more dramatic difference and the cost differential is not that big right now (at least here in the states).
CPU Heat Sink/Fan: Stock is fine for non-overclockers in a typical setting. Some sites like to push fancy coolers because it serves their own interests. In short, it's 90% hype, 10% substance. On a budget, the only reason to get an 3rd party cooler is if you get a REALLY good deal on a guaranteed OEM CPU (they don't come with the stock cooler).
Vista: with newer hardware, vista rocks. It's the only way you'll see true DX10+ performance gains, which will come into play a lot more with 'Crytopia.
Video cards: the past two months have seen dramatic changes in the vid card landscape. This will make doing your homework vital -- visit toms hardware (
www.tomshardware.com) and it has some comparisons and recommendations with price/performance leaders in multiple categories. Beware of driver issues, and consider SLI down the road as an incremental upgrade.
SLI: For two different cards to work together, they *should* be of the same chip family (for SLI), for crossfire, I believe they really do need to be the same, but I could be wrong (toms hardware would say...).
Hard Drives: Get a big one (lol). Use separate partitions for your OS and Games and such to help keep clutter down. EU isn't very sensitive to disk clutter though so this is just a general thing. A separate partition for the swap drive is also nice, but unless it's on a different drive entirely you won't achieve measureable differences with this (and even then, the dedicated drive has to be at least as fast as your new drive...). So, a cheap, small fast drive plus a larger drive = option cost comparison.
CPU type: AMD is my favorite, and is usally the price/performance leader although this isn't always true (depends on the deals, but Intel doesn't seem to offer as many). EU will not benefit much from multi-core, but it's a good option to look for, especially with Vista (not so much with XP).
Memory: Corsair is indeed really good price/performance wise. It often performs well above the labelled speeds, but if you boost it be SURE to use heat spreaders and good case ventilation.
If you don't use NewEgg, you should at least check out the prices before going to pricewatch. I've been using Pricewatch for a long, long time, and when you know what you want already, it gives really good meaningful price comparisons and can save you money. If you do use NewEgg, you won't save the most, but the convenience will make up for the tiny amount you don't save. If every dollar/euro counts, you might want to try pricewatch.
Why don't I make specific recommendations? Because the best deals change too quickly for today's recommendation to be useful tomorrow. Instead, I'd say that you should spend your money along these general lines:
Vid Card: 35%
CPU: 25%
Mainboard: 15%
Hard Drive: 15%
Memory: 10%
Yes, that's just a general idea, the priorities are just a matter of saying all other things being equal, you should put more money into the "higher" priority item. If you had a lot more money, the priorities/layout would change, but for a "modest" amount, that ratio should be pretty close.
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