Newbie building a gaming machine

[aetherh4cker]

Alright, I posted a computer build on here eariliar... and due to some constructive criticism, I redesigned a few things in it to this. I want this machine to be a primary gaming machine, but of course capable of watching movies and all that other good stuff. I'm still building blindly on a few aspects though, and I would apprecaite not only ideas about the computer build, but answers to my questions below.

Question #1. What is up with the RAM I choose? What does it mean by 'Dual Channel Kit'? Does that simply mean that there is two ram chips? Is it okay to use two of this product for a total of four? Anything I should know about it? Is it even compatible with my motherboard?

Question #2. Do I have any brand names that are known to have problems or generally be avoided?

Question #3. Is everything compatible? Things I'm not sure are on the Hard Drive and RAM.

Question #4. I saw a lot of more expensive hard drives that were slower and had less storage space for more expensive than the one I picked. Is there something I'm not seeing?

All help is *greatly* appreciated. I've never built a computer before and I want my first experience to be a happy one.


Case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811119085 $149.00

Power Supply:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103931 $89.99

Processor:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103529 $334.00

Motherboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131530 $109.00

Memory (x2):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145440 $152.50

Hard Drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144417 $99.75

Graphics Card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130249 $319.00

Sound Card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102188 $121.99

Speakers:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16836116153 $86.00

CD/DVD Drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827135136 $24.99

CD/DVD Burner:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827152058 $38.99

Floppy Drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16821104104 $21.99

Keyboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16823126135 $19.99

Mouse:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16826105178 $19.99

Monitor:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824001066 $335.99

Total: $1923.17

 

[thebleakness]

Yeah, it looks very good. If you want to do some heavy gaming, look into 2gb of RAM. A lot a the newer games take all the RAM they can get. You could look into the X2 3800 cpu if you want to stay ahead of the game alittle. Everything else looks good though.

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

Pretty nice build but

-Motherboard, Asus is a brand I stay away from as well as many other people on this forum. They are problematic (For AMD processors) and fail often. I recomend the DFI Lanparty Ultra-D.

-RAM, 2x 1 gig sticks is a better idea for newer games

Processor, an AMD Athlon X2 is probolly a better choice nowadays

 

[Jayj2k1]

I have to say that everything does look good except for a few things.

1) RAM
You would better off just getting 2-1gb sticks, instead of having 4-512mb stick. That way if you do want add more memory, you will still have two slots available. I believe that you do have 4 slots available altogether.

2) Mouse
From the way your budget looks right now with all of those components, 40 more dollars can not hurt you. Upgrade to a Laser mouse. Its a lot of them out there and I have to say that the response on a laser mouse is far better than a regular mouse. I have the Logitech G7 and that thing is a breeze.