New System - advice

Abit TH7II and Samsung PC800. Case is up to you, Lian-Lis are nice.

<font color=blue>Hi mom!</font color=blue>

I do the same stuff. Play games such as Counter-Strike, Warcraft III regularly and also do Photoshop for brochures and flyers, website for the company I work for. I'll tell my system specs and you compare if your wanted specs come close or blows out mine.

motherboard - ABIT KR7A
processor - AMD Athlon XP 1800+
memory - 768MB PC2100 DDR RAM (Generic)
videocard - ATI Radeon 8500 64MB DDR
HDD - Maxtor 60GB ATA133 7200 RPM
soundcard - SB Live! Value Digital
Case - Lian Li Mid Tower Aluminum Case
OS - Windows XP Home Edition

My system has been built last December 2001. Right now a lot of new technology and system choices are available. My system performs well on all games. In all the games I play I turn up all settings to HIGH and still do not suffer a slow performance. Working with Photoshop is a breeze, all operations are done fast. When playing online I usually connect faster than most players. I'm always first or second to connect to game servers. I only have DSL too. My rig is fast enough for my needs and judging by your needs something like or better than my rig will be suitable for you too.

I do suggest you get the following upgrades.

motherboard - any of the popular brands of
motherboards that has the VIA KT333 chipset
or
the latest Pentium 4 motherboards with DDR
memory
processor - latest AMD Athlon XP 2100+ but you might
wanna wait for the Thoroughbreds to come out
or
Intel Pentium 4 2.2GHz and up. If you are
going for P4 2GHz might as well get the
AMD 2100+
Memory - if you don't have the money don't go for RDRAM
, DDR still is a great performer for a cheap
price. With DDR you might be able to have
1GB using PC2100 or even PC2700
Case - Go Aluminum. I've compared a common stell case
over an Aluminum and Aluminum does live up to
its feature of dissipating heat 3 times better

anyway go read the forums and articles here on THG. I've built my PC getting info on THG and it helps a lot and guides you to choosing what parts are right for you. You just gotta do a lot of research

No need for those high end P4s. Get either a P4 1.8A or a 2A. With a 2A you may want to get a nice HSF. Overclock it to 133FSB and PC800 RDRAM is not more expensive than DDR. That PC800 will go to PC1066 and there is no need for 1gb of RAM. 512 is enough. The Abit TH7II is great for overclocking. PC2100 DDR isn't really that great anymore so if you do get DDr get at least PC2700. I'd still prefer the PC800 RDRAM. RDRAM based P4s especially when overclocked to PC1066 will outperform just about any DDR based P4.

My firewall tastes like burning.  

nothing will ever be greater if there's a new one, still the older one performs well...all about clouding your mind and wanting the best. :^]

1GB of RAM will help his video editing. He did say he doesn't want to spend too little. hehe