Help me realize my Dream Machine

Hey guyz, its the first time Im out to make my "dream machine" and would highly appreciate suggestions and advice from all the Xperts around here.
Except for the GPU and Monitor I have not really made up my mind for anything else. So plz review all the components and tell me just how compatible they are and whether or not I need to make changes. Quite frankly I aint all that computer savvy, so far, so try to make sure ure suggestions 'easier' to comprehend.
Well here I go:

Essentials:
1) GPU___________ATI PCX 4870 512MB (256-BITS) DDR5
2) Processor_______E8500 3.16Ghz (6MB CACHE - 1333MHZ FSB)
3) Mobo___________P5QC INTEL P45+ICH10R 1600 FSB (775PINS - SND + LAN-DDR2 & DDR III SUPPORT) PCX SLOT
4) Monitor__________2232BW 22" HIGH GLOSSY BLACK WIDE SCREEN
5) HDD_____________250GB 3.5" HDD 7200RPM 8MB Cache (ST-3250820A)
6) PSU______________ Crosair 520 WATTS SLI READY (HX520W) MODULAR

7) RAM______________ CLUELESS!!....Every1 has been sayin "go for XMS Crosair".....u tell, would 2 GB DDR2 suffice or should I go for the expensice DDR-3

These are the essentials for now....would finalize the accessories list in a couple of hours and would post it up here soon.


P.S: Guys I aint a fanboy of any brand and certainly not inclined towards OC-ing (unless necessary) so keep that in mind when ure suggesting something and THANKS in adv.

Go with 3 hard drives - 1 for os, 1 for page file, and 1 for games.

Go with a 750 watt power supply or greater.

I would also recommend a 24" monitor - you will regret going with 22" and stay away from that glossy - go with the acer 24" monitor.

As for the ram you have two options - option 1: go with 4gb dd2 corsair xms with low timings like cas 4. or option 2: go with ddr3 1600 speed only if you plan on matching that with your fsb at 1600 with the cpu fsb overclocked to 1600. - that way they all match up - 1600 speed for all 3.
Personally I would go with 4gb ddr2.

Hmmmm well u know, bigger screen= higher native res. And I know that in case of LCD monitors u should play games only at thier native res otherwise u get some blur/grain effect. (obviously I dont know the technical terms)
most of my gamer frnds ave advised me to go for a 22" screen becuz, its a safer bet and would allow me to play games at high stats + native res easily, for the next 6-8 months and if I go for a bigger screen, lets say 24" with a nat res of 1920x1200 I would have trouble playing high end FPS games like Crysis @ the nat res + high stats.

And I know I would not be able to go up to 1080p cuz that is supported by a 24" screen and up. But it u really compare a movie runnin @ 720p on a 22" monitor to one runnin @ 1080p on a 24" monitor I dont think there would be much to differentiate. The difference becomes more clear if the latter goes up to 32" or so......I believe.

Plus none of my local computer stores are giving 24" monitors....they jump directly to 28" after 22".

Yeah, like totally!

In my opinion, it is better to go with a 24" monitor if you can. While it's true that running an LCD monitor out of native res does make the image a bit blurry at times, I think the benefit of being able to play most of your games at 1920x1200 will out weight negative effects of having to play a couple of very demanding games at a lower resolution.
Also if you ever use any video,image, or 3d editors the added space for UI elements and a bigger viewport/canvas is really nice.

Ummm... DDR3 1600 runs at 800mhz. To run that memory at advertised (1:1 ratio) speed would make the E8500 7.6ghz.

DDR2 1066 (533mhz) is fine, its basically DDR2 800 OC'd memory. To run that at advertsied speed would push it to 5.063ghz.