Building a system for my niece, plea for advice.

Building a desktop for my niece. Cost is a large factor since, I'm paying for the whole thing myself and I might have to do the same thing for my other niece. Plus, I have to explain the expense to my wife.

It should be capable of some gaming. I know she played World of Warcraft.

What I've got figured (anything can change)

Antec Sonata II case with 450 Watt power supply, $69.00 after rebate
Samsung DVD Burner with Nero, $29.00
200 -250 GB Hard drive, I can get for under $50.00
Plantronics Multimedia headset
OS, probably XP Home for around $70.00


What I don't got figured

MB
Processor
Memory ( 2 GB of cheap and reliable)
Video Card
LCD Monitor, at least 17 inch would like 19
Mouse (I am not springing 45.00 for a mouse)
Keyboard (like Logitech, but I just need good and cheap)
A decent word processor program, suitable for sometimes student.


I've got a month to build this and I'm looking for the most bang for my buck. But one thing it has to have is a reliable motherboard, some overclock potential would be nice. I like the Gigabyte 965P-DS3 (would like cheaper), but I'm thinking that an AMD processor might give me more for my money. If I go that route, I would prefer the AM2 socket.


Any advice most appreciated.

Thanks
Tom

I figure I can spend up to five hundred with few bruises from my wife. Once I hit $800 US, I should maybe shop for a grave marker and a nice burial suit instead.


Tom

I agree, OpenOffice would work great and it's free.

As for the hardware, you're pushing it with a budget of $500. I don't have time to link prices but I'd start with an X2 3600+ and a cheap AM2 board, and 1GB of cheap DDR400 ram.

Case: Cooler master Centurion5
Disk: Western Digital Cavar SE 160gb 16MB CACHE
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 3600+ Brisbane 1.9GHz 2 x 512KB (why? better cache and massive overclockability)
Ram: G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) (only 82.99!?!?! cant get better then that)
Mobo: BIOSTAR TForce TF570SLI Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
PSU: FSP Group (Fortron Source) Blue Storm II 500 ATX 2.2V 500W Power Supply - Retail
Video- EVGA 256-P2-N624-AR GeForce 7900GS 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 KO Video Card - Retail
Thermal Compound - Arctic Silver 5

Subtotal: $584.93
thats without shipping and assuming you have a copy of windows already if you dont change out the graphic card for a lower one

if your an overclocking fan buy the scythe ninja for 39.99 on newegg ull get great speeds out of the x2 3600+

if you have any questions just shoot me a pm or need any advice il help ya out