Building a computer. I could use your help

[KindaPuzzled]

Ladies and Gents:

Thanks for taking time to read my post. The last time I built a computer was about five years ago, and frankly, I lost touch of the entire hardware side of things since. I recently became reacquainted with hardware, and found that I know zilch. Thus, I ask for your help.

I am building a computer that will last a while. I am a moderate gamer -- the thought of being able to install a game of recent vintage on the system is appealing. I will stick with XP until further notice (I've used enough of Vista to realize it ain't going to change my world - DX10 or not.). I use my pc for a lot of duties (including VMWare, XEN, Linux) and want a motherboard with a fair amount of ability. Most of all, I would like a stable platform free from chaos.

So, without further ado, here is what I am thinking (based on furious reading of the past month or so). I can be swayed by the righteous who can lead me down a different path.

CPU
Intel E6600 Core Duo 2 - (stock cooling or quieter solution?)

Motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-965P-DQ6 (alas, many features - again, can be swayed)

RAM
2X1 GB of RAM - Anyone have any suggestions? (I am completely unsure about RAM)

Hard Drives
Three (3) Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB SATA 3.0Gb/s hard drives

Graphic Card
HIS Radeon X1950PRO 256MB GDDR3 IceQ (supposedly quiet)

Computer Case
Antec P180B

Power Supply
SeaSonic S12 Energy Plus SS-550HT ATX12V 550W Power Supply (Is this fully compatabile with the DQ6)

CD/DVD Burner
Two (2) LG 18X DVD±R Super-Multi DVD Burner

ETC
Floppy Drive (my old friend)
LCD Monitor (19-21 inches - Any Suggestions? I don't really know if I should care about widescreen. Should I?)

Did I miss anything?

Thank you for your time in helping me out. It is truly appreciated!

 

[akhilles]

The specs are great.

Stock cpu coolers are ok. If you want quieter, try Freezer 7 Pro.

RAM can be any brand name value DDR2 533/667mhz. If you overclock, then 800mhz and up.

IMO, widescreen is only good for movies. Not all games support WS. Newer ones maybe. Some games have 2 black bars on both sides. Some stretch the images to fit the screen. Not exactly WS IMO.

What about a keyboard & mouse?

 

[skyguy]

Agreed, you've certainly done your research well.

19" widescreen......don't bother. 19" standard aspect gives you greater flexibility and actually more pixels too. If you have a bit more money to spare, the 22" widescreens are very good and prices on them are getting much better. They also match up vertically with a standard 19" in case you ever want to add a 2nd monitor, you can team up a 22" wide and a 19" standard (cheaper this way).

Other than that, get a decent modern keyboard and mouse and you're good to go.

 

[KindaPuzzled]

Thank you for the responses. I really appreciate everything you've told me and the kind words. Yikes, I did forget about the keyboard and mouse. That would have been a bit embarrassing.

I will try the stock cooler and see how that goes, I can always add stuff later I suppose. This should be a fun project.

Thanks for the monitor advice, I think I may just skip the widescreen for now because of the game issues (and I have a widescreen laptop that seems to do okay for the occassional movie). The advice offered here has been worth its weight in gold. Thank you.

 

[skyguy]

Now THIS is the perfect example of posts in this forum topic. Dude did his research first, quick advice, and well mannered to boot.

I may bookmark this page to look at once in awhile, to remind me of a great forum topic after all the.........messy........ones I slog through.....


8)

 

[harty23690]

Stock coolers a noisy beast just FYI.