New computer

[NoControl]

I vote for AMD I always use them they handle pretty well all be it a bit warm. I'd check with price 1st if an intel 3GHz is cheaper then an AMD equivilant then go Intel, otherwise I say AMD.

MOBO I always go with asus, i have never had many problems other then selling the old systems to freinds and then they abuse the pc and kill it...then I have to repair it, besides asus mobos come with a wifi card built in, or at least teh last 1 I bought, I imagine you could get a decent one.

Video card I was all about NVidia and still am but ATI isn't that bad since its now part of AMD and my asus F7 notebook has an ati in it. Also for a vid card, if you want try and get one with an HDMI plug that supports audio out, always nice to be able to toss up ur desktop screen on a 32"+ flatpanel provided you have one, or at least a tv that supports HDMI.

Memory 3GB is all you need.

HDD WD all the way.

As far as Raid no idea never ran raid setup before.

OS I'm with ya there Vista sucks, and with MS planning on or last i heard planning on stopping updates for XP I Dl'ed W7 beta and I like it. It's got the look of vista and the features but the feel of xp.