A 250MB hard drive should be a bare minimum, and 500MB is preferable to give you room to grow. If you plan on storing large amounts of information, editing high-resolution images, or doing any kind of digital video editing, go for the 1 Gigabyte hard drive or greater. They are compact and easy to use. The extra diskette drive should add only slightly to the total price of your system. With the proliferation of multimedia CD titles, CD-ROM drives are growing more essential all the time.
CDs seem to be especially well- suited for education and entertainment.
It will also enable you to record sound if you have a microphone. Higher-end boards that use wave technology are also available. Make sure that the sound card you decide on is compatible with the industry standard, Creative Labs SoundBlaster. You will also need either speakers or headphones to plug into the card to hear the sound. Speakers will need to have a built in amplifier and should be shielded so they will not interfere with your monitor's picture quality.