I personnal would avoid asus or abit, because they are kinda cheap.
Gigabyte motherboards (why because they are well prices, stable and have 4 memory slots)
Nvidia would be a better option although i will conceed that the x800 line from ATI are pretty good and better priced then Nvidia.
Memory kingston value ram, good price and quality
H/D hitachi is good, western digital and maxtor are also
makes NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO difference what cd rom you get, don't listen to anyone that says otherwise.
cpu if you plan on playing games then the amd 64 is a good bet otherwise the amd xp or sempron are good choices.
People compare this PSU to that PSU (power supply unit), but either by good fortune or coincidence, i have never had a problem with the generic ones that came with the case. so ask someone else on that guess.
And as for what was said about books totally agree, if you know how to build a pc, then all its about are what parts you want to purchase.