A decent gaming rig for 400 quid?

[npg]

Is it possible guys? I've just sold my Athlon 1.4GHz and I'm off to Vancouver in a few weeks to buy a system for about $800 CDN. Before I go though I'd like to get some advice on what to look out for. I have a 9800pro and XP Professional so what I'm after is just the barebones more or less.

What I would like to know if possible is

1)Should I stay with Athlon or go for a lower speed Pentium processor considering my budget? And are 64bit REALLY necessary right now?
2)What mid price range motherboard is best suited for gaming?
3)Any particular brand of DVD ROM drives?
4)Cooling cases - how important are they and any recommendations?
5)Soundcard? I was happy with my Soundblaster Live5.1! Are there better and cheaper now?
6)Hard drive, I've seen a Western Digital 160GB one for about 50 quid which I'll probably end up getting.
7)Most importantly which type of RAM should I get. This is probably the most confusing aspect right now given that everyone is talking about PCI express or whatever the hell it is. 1GB of PC3200 DDR RAM is fine no?

Sorry for the long list but I want to get the best set-up I can where I won't have to upgrade for at least 2 yrs.

Thanks

[yashiro]

1) I'd forget Intel. They are never good value for money.

Either get the top end Athlon (3200+) or an AMD64 s754 3000.
Whether it's 64 bit is irrelevant; it's a faster cpu at a good price. You could even consider the new s754 Semprons.

2)For Socket A Athlon - Abit nfs7. For socket 754 depends if you want Nforce or Via.
Nforce - MSI K8N Neo
Via - Abit KV8

3) Pioneer

4) Not needed.

5) SB5.1 will be fine. Some mobos come with onboard sound which may or may not work better. (depends on creatives drivers )

6) Seems good. WD drives are decent these days. Steer clear of IBM/Hitachi.

7) Your choice of ram is fine. PCI-e does not have any bearing on your ram choice.

[npg]

Thanks, I'll bear all these in mind. I was planning on getting an AMD Barton 2800+ but having looked at some of the prices of AMD 64 CPU's, there's not alot of difference and I think I'll go with one of those instead.

Cheers