Memory -

DDR will be the mainstream choice of memory for the next while. With a 100% price premium, DDR-II adoption rates may be a bit low and it will likely not be until sometime in 2005 before it really becomes mainstream. AMD's Athlon 64 strategy of supporting multiple grades of memory makes it feasible to use slower memory with future processors so if DDR DIMM slots stay on future motherboards, current memory will likely work with future processor upgrades. Currently Athlon 64 processors do not support DDR-II and until AMD changes that in the processor die, it is quite useless for the 64. Intel however is trying to push DDR-II quite aggressively in their upcoming chipsets.

TweakFactor Recommendation - It is best to avoid DDR-II at the moment. There should be a good number of motherboards that will support both DDR and DDR-II. The performance benefits of DDR-II will not be realized until the speeds differ significantly from DDR and at the moment that is not the case. It is probably a good idea to stock up on DDR memory right now as shortages are forecasted for later this year as supplies remain tight and memory manufacturers are transitioning to the more lucrative flash memory because of the exploding Digital Camera market.

Stock up on DDR cause it aint going to get cheaper this year

Burners -

CD burners are a mature market and the price between a regular CDROM and a burner is not too great. The area that is more interesting is the DVD+/-R market. Prices for multi-format DVD burners have been dropping rapidly in price and a quality 8x burner can be had for between 120-200$. Older 4x drives are even cheaper many falling below the 100$ threshold. The only sticking point is dual-layer support which is rumored to be introduced to the DVD+R format later this year (Sony has just announced the availability of a dual layer DVD+R solution for 2Q). Reports suggested that current burners technically could be upgraded to support dual-layer recording but that would be dependant on the company.

TweakFactor Recommendation - Do your research. Traditionally companies like Lite-On have been very good about releasing new firmware updates. If Dual Layer DVD burning is a must, it might be prudent to wait but prices on current burners are pretty good and it would not be a bad idea to pick one up especially if the end user is only concerned about doing home videos or data storage.

Powersupply-

A high quality one will last for several generations of computer upgrades. Snag a good quality 400W one and it will be a good bet that it will last a while. (A 300W Antec from a few years back powers my 3200+ and had done service for a Duron 700, 900, 2 1800+s previously also). Get something bigger if you are running a crazy number of drives or have a RAID setup or something similar.

TweakFactor Recommendation - Buy something nice. We had a powersupply blow out recently that decided to take along the motherboard, processor and RAM. Definitely worth an extra few dollars for a quality powersupply. The rumormill this morning stated that the NV40 will require not 1, but 2 molex connectors. Peripherals are getting more power hungry all the time and powersupplies are something that do not change a lot in price at all.