First Timer, Parts Selection

[DKane]

Hello, I've been searching around these forums and others trying to get some knowledge on building my own pc for the last week or so. I'm planning to build one with a budget of about $1,100-$1,200. Although this would need to include everything (monitor, keyboard etc.). My goal is to have a system to play modern and near future games quite nicely. I would also like to run software like Adobe Photoshop. I'm pretty new to this and don't know a whole lot about parts and compatibility but through searching some forums I came up with a list of someof the main parts I could get. I'm not set on any of these, some of them I just selected from a list I thought looked good.

Motherboard:ASUS P5B-E Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard $151

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Conroe 2.13GHz 2M sharing L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor $218

RAM:CORSAIR ValueSelect 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) $208

Video: eVGA 256-P2-N560-RX GeForce 7900GT 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 $203

HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (Perpendicular Recording) ST3320620A 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache IDE Ultra ATA100 Hard Drive $95

Optical:LITE-ON Black 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM ATAPI/E-IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model SHD-16P1S$19

This equals $894. Like I said I'm not set on any of these parts so I'm open to changing anything. Some of them I think I could possibly downgrade a bit. For example the hard drive, I'm not sure I'm going need 320GB. This computer I have now only has 38GB and I've only used 30 of that, but I don't have any games on it and I think that would use a significant amount. Also for the CPU, I read that I could get more performance per $1 if I went with the E6300 rather than the 6400.

I have no idea about some parts so I didn't bother to choose any. Any suggesttions on a good case? What type of PSU will I need?

Also, can any one recommend a good monitor? I most likely will get an LCD, and I'd like 17"-19", maybe more if the price is right.

Oh, and if it makes much of a difference I will be purchasing the parts in about 1 month. The only thing I've heard of that is coming out around then is Windows Vista, which I don't really know anything about. Should I just stick with XP Home?

Lastly, I'd like to thank anyone who takes the time to read this and help me out. Have a nice day.

[Alaron]

Welcome to the forums. Your list is solid. The only thing to change so far is the ram. You need DDR2-667. I'd go with Corsair ValueSelect still.

The E6300 and E6400 are the same chip aside from the slight clock speed difference. So if you need to trim the budget, dropping down to the E6300 would be a good idea. But you can stick with the E6400 still.

As for cases, you can pick up any kind that you like. The power supply is what is important. I'd with a quality 500w unit, check out our list: http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=131195

For LCDs, I'd go with a 19" from Samsung.

And for the OS, stick with XP Home. I wouldn't bother upgrading to Vista until at least one service pack comes out.