Hi JHM2K
Slot Load = Terrible. Avoid slotloading drives at all costs. I've owned slotloading drives in both PC and Mac laptops and they have both gone bad within two years.

Buy the core 2 quad, don't bother with the core 2 duo.

DDR2 is just fine, no need for DDR3.

Wireless keyboards and mice - a total waste of money (IMHO)

Get a good hardware graphics card - Nvidia 8800GT's with DVI output go for cheap nowadays, that's the bare minimum. 9000 series are even better but are still expensive. Unless you are an ATI fanboy, go NVidia all the way! Unless you are some kind of hardcore gamer (and even if) then multi-graphic-card setups are a waste of money.

Buy a drive-bay mount 30-in-1 flash card reader, that will save you a lot of headaches.

Buy a bigger power supply than you need, 525+ watts. Your computer will be much more reliable for it.

If you don't mind surfing at 1168x768, then there's always the option of buying a 720p lcd TV instead of a computer monitor.

When in doubt, shop at newegg.com they have some excellent prices and what's better is that they have a great ranking and review section for hardware/software.