Ok, I'm glad you finally decided, one thing I would add is an extra hard drive. just a 10GB on for your system and OS. keep the 40GB one just for video.

For the US I'd stick to NTSC, the difference between the two isn't really that much. If you have good light etc, no one will be able to tell the difference.

512MB RAM is the go if you can afford it but 256 will do the job well