Neophyte looking for build or buy advice

I really know very little about computers but need to
retire my Dreamcast asap and get a pc for online wankery,
gaming and burning cds and dvds. A friend has built
several systems and offered to build one for me. I've
almost given him the green light, and still might, but
there's a nagging voice in my head wondering about customer
service and technical assistance that I will surely need at
some point. He knows how to build a pc, but any assistance
will have to fit his schedule which may or may not coincide
with problems I'll inevitably have. I have some money at
the moment and I'm looking for a high end system. I did
some research and settled on the following
components-Athlon
2600+ or 2700+, Asus A7N8X Deluxe, at least 512MB of
Corsair XMS 2700 or 3200, WD "Special Edition" 120GB HD
with 8MB Cache, ATI AIW 9700 Pro, Klipsch 5.1 speakers,
Toshiba 16X DVD, Yamaha CRW-F1 CD-RW and a Pioneer DVR-A05
or Sony DRU-500A at some point in the future. I think I've
picked some solid components, but any monkey can do that; I
still lack the knowledge of how it all works together and
what to do when problems arise. I'm also not sure I want
to spend a great deal of time learning the intricacies of
every component on my system. I'm looking for reliability
and stability above all else. I've checked out Reseller
and crossed several builders off of my list. I'm still
considering Falcon Northwest, Hypersonic and maybe ABS or
OverdrivePC if they'll work with me since they don't offer
the ATI AIW 9700. Any other builders I should look at?
These are all going to cost several hundred dollars more
than a home built system with identical componens, so I
would essentially be paying for technical support and I'm
just not sure if it's worth it. Of course it wouldn't be
for most of you, but for a low tech big ape such as myself,
it seems like it might be worth it. Any thoughts?
Finally, if I go with the home build, is there really any
need for a floppy drive? Thanks for any help.