First Time Builder - Looking for Help/Suggestions

[Spitfire8580]

Hey, all. I've been a lurker at these forums for the past month, popping in and out. Originally, I came here trying to decide what monitor to buy with my Dell Dimension XPS - 710T, 2001FP, so on and so forth. However, reading through many of the comments on these and other forums, I've seen a lot of animosity directed towards Dell. Furthermore, Dell's message boards only increased my apprehensiveness, due to many problems with the X800 boards (X800SE and X800XT) in the systems. Ultimately, I figured I was better off without Dell. Ultimately, this board has convinced me to build it myself... or at least, have it custom made, as opposed to the "brand" name. (and save myself some SERIOUS cash in the process!)

I seek the approval of the board on this setup. It will be used as a college computer... gaming like (I sort of went to consoles once my old Micron realized it couldn't play much more than Diablo II and the Sims... Oh, the days when a 256MB GeForce2 was top of the line.) So, here's the newegg deal.

Case - Collermaster Praetorian ($98)
PSU - Antec True430 ($70)
Motherboard - MSI NForce3 250 K8 Neo Platinum [754 board] ($128)
Processor - AMD A64 3400+ ($294)
Memory - Corsair XMS Extreme Memory Series 512MBx2 PC3200 ($229)
HD - Western Digital Raptor 74GB ($178)
Videocard - eVGA 6800GT ($424)
Soundcard - Creative Labs Soundblaster Audigy 2 PCI Sound Card ($75) - - - Is this necessary? I only intend to use a 2.1 setup.
CD Burner - LiteOn 52x32x52x16 Combo Drive ($42)
DVD Burner - LiteOn 12X DVD+RW/-RW ($79)
Floppy - NEC 1.44 Internal Floppy ($9)

My key concerns are compatibility, overheating, and compatibility. I do NOT intend to overclock. If more questions arise, I'll be sure to post them here. Thank you in advance for your support and guidance. It's appreciated!

Last note: Suggestions are welcome, but I'd like to keep the price in the ballpark of 1.5K, give or take a bit. The above configuration stands at 1,626.

 

[GJSNeptune]

Betray the 3.5" floppy. I won't tell anyone.

Since you aren't overclocking, you're paying too much for RAM. Get some regular Corsair instead.

If you're just using 2.1, the Audigy 2 might be an unwise investment without a kick-ass set of speakers, like Klipsch.

 

[AllstarDad]

Might also want to drop the cdrw and just use the dvd burner for both dvd burning and cd burning. I never use the cdrw drive i have it is wasting a slot in my case. Some good cheap memory is kingston value ram(http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-141-423&depa=1). For the soundcard that is a good choice but you could go cheaper and most likely not notice a difference.