Going through this forum, been a lurker for years, recently signed up.
HONESTLY, think good and hard about your planned upgrades. You are going to spend a LOT of money upgrading the guitar, and its frankly not worth it. Id sell the guitar, and get a japanese model ibanez. You can find rg500's for less then 300 all over the place. You would spend more then that upgrading the crappy components, and you're left with the same crappy neck and body you started with.
Simply my 2 cents. Don't read too much into my post.