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cheers people 4 all da advice n tips,

i second what Daft tnuc says, all good advice.
I wouldn't go for a Hitachi harddrive, go for Western Digital or Seagate. Get 2GB of ram if you can afford it. along with the brands mentioned also check out Crucial:
http://www.crucial.com/uk/
They have a neat little thing that helps you choose exactly the right type of RAM for the motherboard you have, which really takes the headache out of it.
Here's a good review site to help you check out which components you want to get:
http://anandtech.com/
Think seriously about spending some money on an acoustically treated case and quiet fans if this is going to be a serious music PC:
http://silentpcreview.com/ - reviews here
http://www.quietpc.com/ - quiet parts here.
You won't be able to run a microphone & get a decent recording in a room with most PCs in my experience.
Amongst other things I build/maintain audio production PCs for studios so PM me if you want any help.
thanks
tom

and btw i wouldn't bother spending £100 on an antistatic bracelet or whatever was suggested. I've never seen anyone wearing one of those. Basically as long as you make sure you touch something that is earthed before you touch the inside of the pc, and then whilst touching anything inside just keep one elbow on the metal of the case so that you are earthed, and static won't be an issue. (for this to work you have to have the computer plugged into the mains, but turn off the switch on the back of the power supply and at the wall so you don't get fried).
t

it costs about £3 it's worth even if you earth yourself

well, maybe, maybe. In 8 years of building PCs I've never damaged anything through static though.

im with u fella i dont use 1 , i just make sure i touch something earthed first like a radiator (seriously)

built a pc yesterday for $1000 AU, dual core shizzle, 2 gig ram, 256 cheapish graphics and audiophile soundcard.. runs so fast and smooth.. my parents on the other hand just bought a dell pc for the same price and it has pooey components and chugs vista along very slowly..
I can't advise doing it yourself, with the help of someone with knowledge enough.

peace

Just built mine from the ground up about 2 months ago. I already had the monitor and soundcard and win XP but ...
I bought every part except for my dvd drive off of ebay

Abit Ab9 Pro
e6400 duo core
thermalake housing
1 gb kingston ram
250 sata II hard drive (have my old 160 in there as well)
geforce 6800

said and done... $450

I'd say by putting it together by myself and having the patience to wait for the right bids on Ebay I probably saved at least $300. that's practically half price... well almost.
still not done but it's up and running very nicely.

You are at an advantage (cost wise) building a PC only if you are going for top end components or if you buy used components (which is definately an option).

I got a motherboard, dual core CPU and a gig of OCZ DDR2 w/ top end graphics card for a couple hundred dollars worth of RC cars and parts. All were used, and the guy (a friend) traded them because he couldn't get windows installed - you needed to have a disc with IDE drivers (believe it or not) for the motherboard in order for windows to install.

I've never bought a prebuild before, and don't imagine I ever would, especially realizing the availability of good quality used components out there. On the flip side, you never know that you're getting working components unless there is a gauruntee. But yeah these days it is often cheaper to buy a pre-build as the manufacturers are getting parts in droves at low cost, where as we're paying for just the parts, but no value added (building the system). Another consideration is windows - you need to get a copy and if you're deadset on running a legit op this is a REAL cost consideration. Microsoft sells liscences for cheap to companies like dell, but for you buying one single copy - it's not very cost effective.

Certainly another consideration is time. I'm finding that systems are easier to manage in some ways (no jumpers, can book off of CDs, don't need floppys etc) but more difficult in others (need IDE drivers for windows to install?)

PS also never used anti-static - even working at computer shops, and installing modchips on 100s of PS2s and Xboxes - never cooked anything.