A phillips head screw driver is all you need. Everything uses one size screw now and every part you buy will have extra screws. I have around a hundred that I've never used.
Assuming you'll use the same case, keyboard and mouse, I suggest:
CPU:
AMD Athlon 64 3800+ - it's based on the 90nm Venice core, which is better in every way than it's 130nm predecessor. It's not available in a 4000+ variant yet, but considering how much less heat it generates and the improved strained silicon technology used, you can easily overclock it to higher speeds than the 130nm 4000+ would ever reach.
Mobo:
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe - it won't overclock as far as it's DFI rival, but the DFI bios is kinda fiddly and you have to be willing to work at things quite a bit to extract that extra speed to really run significantly faster than the ASUS. If you go the DFI route and really seriously overclock it, be prepared to spend lots of time resetting the bios every time you change a setting that doesn't agree with the rest.
Memory:
1GB PQI Turbo PC3200 RAM - it's TCCD based and I can hit 300mhz at 3-4-4-10 if I rachet down my CPU multiplier. You can do up to 250mhz at 2-3-3-10, which should be plenty. You could spend more on Corsair or OCZ RAM, but they're all the same Samsung modules repackaged.
OS Drive:
Western Digital 73GB Raptor - it's fast as hell for boot times and games, faster than the best 15k SCSI drives. Unless you plan on running your rig as a server too, I see no reason to waste money on SCSI drives and controllers. For home use it's the fastest drive out there. This is the newer SATA 150 model.
Storage (prawn) Drive:
Western Digital 300GB Caviar WD3000JB - it's big, reasonably priced and it's very quiet. One of the quietest drives you can buy. I've got the 200GB version and it's damn near silent. I've got my case door off too.
Power Supply:
Seasonic S12-600 600W PSU - I was going to link the 500W version, but this is only a little bit more and its in stock (the 500W isn't). I've got the 430W version (I don't have an A64 or the potential for SLI) and it's extremely quiet. The Active Power Factor Control makes it extremely efficient, part of the reason why it runs so cool and rarely ever speeds up the 120mm fan. Silent PC Review says it's the quietest PSU ever. Build quality is also excellent. It will auto adjust between 110v and 230v so you don't have to worry about which continent you're on.
GPU:
eVGA 6800GT 256MB PCI-E card - It's eVGA so it's good quality. It's the 256MB model and the 6800GT can easily hit Ultra speeds so there's no reason to waste money on a more expensive version of the same card. Except bragging rights maybe. But money is better spend elsewhere. Maybe put it towards another card in another six months or so and run it SLI.
CD/DVD-RW drive:
Plextor 16x DVD-RW drive - the best 16x drive on the market. Considerably more expensive than the
NEC ND-3520A 16x DVD-RW drive, but it IS the best. It is only a little bit better than the NEC though. I'd personally go with the NEC and save $60. There's no real advantage to the Plextor drive, I just included it because it is technically the best.
Heatsink:
Thermalright XP-90C - the best there is. Granted only marginally better than mostly aluminum XP-90 and $20 more expensive, but it IS the best. You'll need a
fan, and this one is pretty good. Ideally you'd use a 92mm fan but there just isn't much selection in that size. This 80mm fan is variable speed so you can turn it up when you're encoding videos or playing games and turn it down when you're watching movies or listening to music. It can go all the way down to 1300rpm, which is probably too slow for a hot processor like an A64, but it can also get up to 72cfm at 5500rpm. So you've got plenty of range there. If you want to go the quiet route, Zalman makes a very nice 120mm
heatsink . Not
quite as high performance as the XP-90C, but very quiet and the fan is included along with a Fan Mate 2 fan controller.
Sound Card:
M-Audio Revolution 5.1 - it's not an E-Mu card in terms of unadultered audio fidelity, but E-Mu cards don't do games. In terms of performance, the M-Audio card uses slightly more CPU cycles than an Audigy 2 when it comes to games, but the sound quality is considerably better, especially for music and movies. You may want to upgrade this fall when Creative releases their new X-Fi cards. They're supposed to be enormously powerful compared to the currenty Audigy cards. We'll have to see, but it can't be too bad since E-Mu designed the chip that's going to go in it and will also release their own variants later on. For now, the best gaming card is the Revolution 5.1. It's got optical out so you can hook it up to your receiver for surround goodness.
Case:
Lian Li PC-6070A Aluminum case - it's light, it's quiet, it's well built and it's not hideous. It should blend in pretty well with the other electronics in your living room. I'm not a fan of Lian Li cases because they're frequently ugly, but this one is alright. It's the door on the front that does it. I think I probably should have gotten this case instead of my current Cooler Master. Silverstone makes good quality aluminum cases too, but they're kinda ugly.
Keyboard/Mouse:
Logitech Cordless Desktop MX3100 - it's Logitech's wireless keyboard and an MX1000 mouse bundled together. Mice don't get much better than the MX1000, except for the Razor Diamondback or the MX518, but they're corded so they don't count. The response is much better than just about any other optical mouse and it's got an integrated lithium battery that recharges on it's dock. The keyboard uses 2 AAs but you can pick up an Energizer recharger that comes with AAs and just swap 'em every month or two.
This only brings you to about $2100. What more can you waste your money on? Another graphics card to do SLI will raise it to $2450 and another 1GB of RAM will bump it up to $2700. That leaves $800 in your pocket and nothing else to upgrade. Maybe put it towards the next generation of video cards when the come out in another six months or so. Because you know they'll be twice as fast as the fastest we have now, just like the last generation.
While NewEgg doesn't do international orders, you should be able to find all of this stuff in Europe pretty easily, because it's all popular hardware. Top brands and all. It may run you a bit more, but you've got some headroom, right?
As for that monitor, may I suggest this:
Hyundai L90D+ 19" 8ms LCD or this:
Samsung 920T 19" LCD 1000:1 Contrast Ratio. You could really go either way. The Hyundai is extremely fast, with well above average contrast ratio, or you can go for the best color quality in the Samsung, but it's only 25ms response, so you may see a bit of ghosting in games. I know for a fact the Hyundai monitor will work in Europe. The Samsung doesn't say, but it seems to me that LCD power supplies just about all work with 100-240 AC power. I don't think it's an issue for you. But you may want to check out a manufacturer's website before you go placing any orders.
You should probably price your hardware in the UK and see if it would save money to have someone order it from NewEgg in the US and then ship it to you. I hear hardware prices in the UK are awful, despite the poor US dollar value.
