You can pay a little more and get more advanced features including a TV tuner port to watch cable TV on your computer. LCD monitors are still pretty costly, but beginning to drop in price. Next year we ll see a big increase in sales for LCD monitors. PCI slot full duplex wavetable cards are excellent cards for a much cheaper price. Yamaha, upper line Creative Labs and Altech Lansing speakers are nice.
Headphone jacks on the front of the speakers are a desirable feature.
Microsoft and Logitech make the best mice, get one with the scroll wheel. An interesting new mouse from Microsoft uses IntelliEye technology and has no mouse ball. Soon all of the mice manufacturers will try to emulate this radical new design. Get an upgrade for a few bucks to a better model. K U.S. Robotics internal or external fax modem.