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I'd suggest overbuying for now so you can maybe reuse it in your next system (if you upgrade more than once every 2 years).

Overbuying isn't a good idea due to the fact that the standards change so fast these days. What is your top of the line uber expensive RAM today will just be the mid range stuff by next year and obsolete the year after that.

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Kingston Value RAM has never done me wrong, but neither has Crucial.

Ditto. I usually buy Crucial because they guarantee it to work with your system. Never had any go wrong on me and if it did, they'll replace it because of their warranty.

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Also, I think Crucial and Corsair are one and the same.

Crucial is the retail arm of Micron.

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On an odd note, I don't know if they still make "registered DDR RAM" anymore, but I'd recommend it. I built two identical machines, ABit KG7 Athlon 1.4, but mine with registered DDR and my friends with regular DDR. After 2 years, his RAM burnt out.

Having registered RAM doesn't make the RAM more robust. It just means you have less loading on the lines which lets you have more modules. If something did blow the RAM interface then it'd just blow up the buffer chips on the RAM instead of the RAM chips themselves. Either way means you going out and buying more RAM.
For the average home user, you don't need registered and don't want it as it increases latency. It is only really useful if you want to fill all the slots or you have server equipment which has many slots.