Ryan,

1) I like the asus av7333 motherboard..nice and stable and costs like $100...have to look though

2) the processor ur choosing should be fine, if u chose retail it comes with a heatsink (u still need to hook it up to the cpu)...i bought a XP 2000 and my friend a XP 1900...ran some tests...mine is like 5% faster when playing games...when using the internet and normal office type stuff...the same performance....if do go OEM with the chip and have to get a heatsink...Thermaltake VOlcano 9 is real nice....or the Volcano 7 is good too

3) that should be good amount of memory...try crucial.com they have 2nd day free air shipping...look for PC2700 or less i think pc2100 or something

4) LG & Liteon makes a good 40x12x48x CD burner...for like $55

5) for graphics card with TV Out....Asus V8420 GeForce 4 Ti 4200 64MB = 135, 128MB = 165....both are free shipping @ newegg.com http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=manufactory&catalog=48&manufactory=1315&DEPA=1&sortby=14&order=1

XP Home and XP Pro look the same, XP Pro should be considered more like Window 2000 Professional....if u don't like the new look u can always turn it off and go back to the classic look aka Windows 2000....open up Control Panel> Display Properties> Appearance Tab> under Windows and buttons section> use the pulldown menu and selct "Windows classic style"

oh yeah with that asus mb, it comes with a good sound card onboard or u can disable it and use ur soundblaster instead

good luck,
ren