New at building pc and need help or suggestions

[Estephens]

I am new at building my own pc. I have a old gateway g6-400c computer and I recently just got my Uncles IBM Aptiva. ( not really sure what the Aptiva is though ) When I look up under system information it tells me that I have a x86 family model 2 stepping 1 authentic AMD ~798Mhz. And under memory; AMD - 751 processor to AGP controller and Nvidia Riva TnT2 ultra.
I don't know if this is something he upgraded or if its what came in the Aptiva. I also don't know if this is something that is good or old or something I can use. I was looking into getting a new tower and building from scratch. I was trying to stay under $1000, but get a high performance system. This is what I was looking at:

ASUS A8N5X Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
Model #: A8N5X
COOLER MASTER Centurion 532 RC-532-SKN1 Black Aluminum bezel, SECC chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
Model #: RC-532-SKN1
SONY Black 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model DDU1615/B2s - OEM
NEC Black 16X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 16X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2M Cache IDE/ATAPI 16X DVD±R DVD Burner - OEM
SAMSUNG SpinPoint P Series SP2504C 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model VS1GBKIT400 - Retail
Model #: VS1GBKIT400
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 1GHz HT 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor - Retail
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card - Retail
XFX PVT42EUDE3 Geforce 6800 XTreme 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
BenQ FP91G+ Black 19" 8ms LCD Monitor - Retail

I don't know if these will go together and if I need all of them, but the cost with the monitor is around the $1000 price mark on newegg.com and they all have good reviews on them. Please let me know what you think. thanks

[flanzig1]

Does that case come with a PSU? Otherwise you will need a PSU. You will need an OS(WindowsXP Home OEM around $90)

[Alaron]

Welcome to PCMechanic.

Looks pretty good, just a couple things to change. That case has no power supply, pop in one of these Antecs: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103937

Also, skip that Samsung hard drive. Look at the Western Digitals with 16MB caches.

:)

[Estephens]

Thanks! Could I use the power supply from the Aptiva? Or is it too old? Am I better off building from scratch?

[glc]

Don't even try an old power supply out of a proprietary machine. It's gonna be low power and it won't have a 24 pin main power connector, and may not even have the 4 pin aux.

[Estephens]

alright, Thanks! I updated to a Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM and a Antec SmartPower 2.0 SP-500 ATX12V 500W Power Supply - Retail. I also added Microsoft Windows XP Home With SP2 - OEM
since the one I have is based on the gateway computer system.

[Staren]

Sounds like a pretty good plan. Might be able to save you a bit of money though. Are you big into audio? If not, then the on-board sound from the motherboard will be more then good enough. I would just give the on-board sound a try. If it isn't good enough, you could always add a sound card later.

[Estephens]

Oh. I didn't know I could get away without a sound card. Thanks

[kram 2.0]

I suggest you look into a retail purchase instead of an OEM for the optical. The software included in a retail version makes it a pretty good deal.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827106256

kram