Recently, I've been thinking that it's about time to replace my beloved p3/750 (ASUS CUSL2) machine with something a bit more modern. That machine has been my main workstation for close to 4 years now, and while an excellent system, it'd be nice to have something a tad faster. And for all you idiots, I don't game, so stop raving about how big a "gfx crd" I can get for this machine, or how much I can overclock. I don't give a shit; I will still be using my trusty Voodoo3 3500TV (16MB) board. And no, this system will not have any cold cathode lights or side panel windows of any kind. It's a computer, not a Benny's-auto-store-on-wheels.
At the recommendation of Matt, I chose the ASUS K8V Deluxe motherboard for this system. It is a socket 754 board, and has some interesting features. It also has a SATA controller, which may prove valuable if I ever upgrade my drives. I plan on getting this board from tigerdirect.
The CPU will be an AMD Athlon64 2800+ (1.8 GHz) processor with 512k of L2 cache and a 1.6GHz front-side bus. 64bit seems very promising, and at this point, amd64 is the only way to go, since I will never obtain the funds for a nice G5 system (still volumes better than AMD64). This is coming as a bundle with the motherboard from TigerDirect.
I have chosen some Crucial 512MB DDR PC3200 RAM, from newegg. It should set me back around $57 (less than the originally-planned Kingston RAM).
Lastly, I have chosen PC Power & Cooling's Silencer 360 ATX power supply. My current supply is an antec 300, which will go in styx (it also doesn't have the New Age 4 pin connector). That PSU has gotten excellent reviews, and PCP&C is a very reputable brand. This will be from Best Byte Computers, Inc. $65. Some don't understand the importance of investing in a quality power supply; it's vital if you want your components to last and not die from unclean power.
The final price list shows the system coming out to $401. Not bad for a workstation. I expect this machine to last me at least another 4 years. This system will, of course, run FreeBSD. I've heard not-so-good things about the amd64 port, but if it does turn out bad, I will just use i386. Fair enough.
Lastly, much of the inspiration of this machine came from djb's (as much as I hate his software) "Standard Workstation 10.10.2004". Also, one thing I found rather saddening is the use of the text "Optimized for gaming!!!!!!!" on TigerDirect's memory site.
Price list is also available as a spreadsheet: OO.org calc and MS Excel.