Help me build a new studio pc!

[dan the acid man]

stick with core 2 duo (make sure it's a core 2 duo, the names differ slightly, can't remember the others off the top of my head) it's the best bang for the buck cpu out there still.

go with 2 Gb of RAM and use xp not vista, then you can always add another 1Gb stick later on when you've got some spare cash.

as others have said, make sure the psu is decent, anywhere around 500w will be fine, as long as it's a true power rating (the cheaper brands quote figures the psu will never reach)

decent brands of psu are seasonic (its what i use, quiet and reliable), ocz, antec, corsair, enermax, tagan, akasa coolermaster, thermaltake and zalman, if it's any other manufacturer i'd be wary.

usually where companies save money on selling pre-built pc's is in the model of psu, the graphics which doesn't matter in this instance really and the motherboard they use.

decent brands of motherboard are asus, abit, gigabyte, msi, intel and asrock for the cheaper end

oh as for harddrives i'd stick with samsung (my favourite these days, really quiet and run cool) or seagate.

But then again other people swear by maxtors and western digital