So i have been pointed here by mutiple different people, so I hope you guys can help me. Basic newb questions: will all this work together and am i missing anything? all constructive advice is welcome

I am making this system for mid level gaming( i want the system to run new games well, but i would prefer no lag over pretty graphics), but i have about ~$700 budget. I plan to run windows XP and hopefully intergrate my old IDE hard drives into the system. I want this system to last about 3 years+


CPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115037


motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 813121090R

-ok since this is open box, what cables will i need to get as well? just sata cables for the 1 new hard drive or could i hook up a new SATA drive through my old IDE drives(at dimished speed?)?
-PCI express 2.0(is it that much better than 16x?)
-DDR3 memory.. (DDR2 v DDR3 does the difference matter?)
-power connector pins? 20 or 24 or something?
-anything else i need to worry about? (really worried about having the correct motherboard that can do everything i need it to..)


video card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814103050

-If i have a old CRT monitor.. will it work with this video card?


hard drive

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822136073

-i don't intend to set up a raid system.. but i do have 2 old IDE hard drives that i just want to use as storage space, can i slave them to this HD and if i do will it slow down the system's speed?
-DO i need a SATA controler card?.. evertime i searched for SATA cables all i get is freakin control cards...


memory

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820231149

case and power supply

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811156203

-if i dont intend to overclock much if at all, do i need more cooling? 2 case fans, stock fans on the CPU, video card, and PSU..
-will the power supply be adaquate? ( i emailed newegg about what PSU they put in it because raidmax's website listed no PSU they put in....)


dvd burner

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827106072

-since this is open box as well.. what will i need to connect this to computer? I have old CD burner cables, will they do or will i need to spend 20 bucks more on cables? ( i just want something that works, speed does not matter)



any help or advice you guys can give, even a "that looks fine to me" would be greatly appreciated.. my current computer is.. well lets just say it does not like running Diablo 2 anymore and yesterday i got 4 blue screens of death randomly.. so work on this computer has stepped up

not knowing what that PSU is (probably generic junk, but sometimes thats not true), i would be wary of it, and would just order a decent one like an antec earthwatts, and you say that motherboard is open box? BE VERY, VERY CAREFUL, those can sometimes be completely broken and unusuable - i would think you would be better off with a new P35 mobo than a dodgy x38.... e8400 - i cant see anything wrong, but if you are planning on keeping this computer for 2 years or more, probably you want a quad core - they are the future.
i cant see any reason that video card wouldn't work with an old CRT monitor and that dvd burner.... is that really open box? unless i'm misreading it says RETAIL
oh yeah, also, DDR3 memory is about 3 times the price with about 1.2 times the performance compared to DDR2, so again i would say choose a different motherboard

not really. there's six core coming out soon.

looks like a pretty good system overall, although I would go for the 9600GT instead over the radeon, or even the 8800GT if you could fit that into your budget. Tom's had an article about the 9600GT and its great(http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-geforce-9600-gt,1780-13.html). The 8800GT is the clear winner though. The CPU is a good one, I've seen some great overclocking with that. I bought some open box stuff from newegg, and its just fine! Yes, you do have to be careful and you need to know that its not new, but with that in mind, you can get some amazing stuff far below retail.

The cooling with the stock CPU fun is fine for mild overclocking, probably 3.5-3.6Ghz. You could go for an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro,(http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-geforce-9600-gt,1780-13.html). That would give you a better overclock and cooler system.

The power supply could give you a hard time, but just try it for now and see how things go!

Good luck with the system build!

well thats even more "the future" then isn't it?

hey man !!

as regards to the motherboard get a retail package. thats the only way you can be certain that the motherboard has never been used.

as regards to the power supply i would recommend you to get a 600+ watt psu. Being your first build that will surely prevent problems. if newegg cannot ship it with out a psu get another case and select a 600+ watt psu. Remember that when Newegg added that psu to the case they assumed that the system will have 1 hdd not 3 hdd.

as regards to hdd, yes you can install your older IDE hard disk. it will be slower copying files from sata to ide hdd and viceversa. if i were you i would put xp and games on the SataHard disk then use the older drives for documents, music files and movie files etc.

no need for a 600 watt - unless its a good brand it will be junk, and you may as well get a good 500