Hi, I am semi informed about this things. So precise explanations would be great =)

I want to give it a go at building my own pc, so what I did was basically took a 'budget' deal from one store and just made alterations from there hoping to maybe save some money on the stuff I do not need.
I am a gamer. I would love to be able to run games smoothly. Running games on low settings would be okay with me. I do not aim for a machine that can run games on full resolution max this and that.

Maybe aim to play like lost planet, bioshock, and SIms3. But main game would be Warcraft III, which even a p4 setup can do. And yea, my budget is fairly low. So I am looking for something that is really value for money.

Here it is:
Motherboard. Erm, have not much idea. Just used the one in the 'budget' deal mentioned:
Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L M/board S775 G31 PCIE16 2DDR2 AUDIO VGA GLAN SATA
http://aandr.com.au/shopping/e.....il=X249690
$108.95 (USD87.86)

Processor. Also from the budget deal. So merely assumed that it will fit
Intel E5200 2.5Ghz Dual Core Processor 800MHZ
$122.95 (USD99.15)

Need a wireless setup, as I use wireless for my internet. Does this fit anywhere on the motherboard? It says fits on any 32bit pci expansion slot.
Belkin F5D7000Au 54G Wireless Desktop PCI Card
$59.95 (USD48.35)
http://aandr.com.au/shopping/e.....il=X165426

Need a DVD-writer. Seems pricey, are there cheaper ones?
LG GH-22NS30 22X Black SATA DVDR/RW/RAM Multiformat DVD Writer W/Software
$59.95 (USD48.35)

Ok, it seems that the motherboard can only hold up to 4Gb of ram. The only things I have a clue are 4Gb, the 800Mhz thing and the DDR2 which I think depends on the motherboard. What are these Non-ecc and low latency stuff? It changes the price
KINGSTON 4GB 800MHZ DDR2 NON-ECC LOW-LATENCY
$155.95 (USD125.76)

Seems like the cheapest case there:
Usicase 3330 Black/Silver ATX Midi Tower Case Usb2 450W
$79.95 (USD64.47)

Using the default GPU they gave. Seriously, the only thing I know how to look at are numbers. Is this any good? What the turf is Manli? I heard of MSI, asus and stuff. Can someone explain to me what is this?
Manli G-N95GT Geforce 9500GT Graphics Card PCIex 1024Mb DVI
$100.95 (USD81.41)
http://aandr.com.au/shopping/e.....il=X252054

Total: $688.65 (USD555.35) My budget is around $800 to $900 (USD645.15 - 725.79) for the whole system including the monitor that Im gonna purchase 2nd hand.

Owh yea, prices in the brackets are in USD, so hope you guys can help with stuff that I am overpaying for. =) Ill try to find a 2nd hand monitor to purchase and I have my own OS, speakers, keyboards and mouse. Am I missing anything?

Again, this is my first time, I didnt really know where to start. So just merely nitpicked. Help would be appreciated. Is there any potential to upgrade this piece anytime in the future? I would really like this to be as flexible as possible. What about those Sli thingamajigs?

Hi ptseet. No probs. The Edit button only works for 30 mins. Please be a bit patient, tis the weekend. And all our hardware geeks are out doing things :)

I haven't checked you hardware yet, I will soon.

I can answer your question though;

1. The DDR5 is only used by the video card and thats it so you don't need anything special for it.
2. As for the motherboard is just what you want in it. You need the right CPU socket, which you know and form factor, ATX, mini ATX or BTX, to fit the case. PCIe 2.0 16x slots, SATA ports, max memory supported, and type of RAM supported is all based on what you want to have and can afford.
3. ATX is still most popular. BTX never really took off. ATX is going to be easiest to find and there isn't any real reason to get another form factor (as for as I know).

Okay, Ill do more hunting later after my exam paper. =p

1. Changing the ram, that should be easy. Made a careless mistake.

2. What brands of casings are well-known?

3. How much wattage in the PSU should I be looking for?

4. Oh yea, I didnt really ask this previously. When choosing a motherboard, does the PCI-e slots differ between ATI and Nvidia? I read somewhere where this can be different when you decide to run SLi or Crossfirex.

Okay, Im still looking around.

Got a dumb question to ask
Is there such thing as like having 'too much' power for the PSU when you have like barely anything that sucks power from the motherboard? Would anything be like fried if the wattage is like too high?

THanks

Although it is best to run a PSU at between 50 and 75% load as that is where it is most energy efficient. There's no point buying 1000W just because you think that it will be efficient unloaded.

Okay, I went ahead and just went and bought everything. Yes, that was stupid. But I was pretty sure I got my basics right,

Here is what I have:

MB: Asus P5Q SE2 (sorry, site is down at time of posting, so couldnt post the link)
Ram: Kingston DDR2 800 4Gb (2 x 2Gb)
Case: Some generic case.
PSU: Coolermaster Extreme + 500W ( Has 70+ efficiency)
HD: Seagate Barracuda GT7200.11 1Tb
GPU: Radeon HD4850

Okay here are my probs so far:
GPU turned out to be a monster, so had to do some destruction to my case to fit it in. Solved there.
I got a rough idea that everything seems to be assembled properly

Problem: Cant get OS installed

First error I got was that my harddisk cannot be detected. (Not really an error, as the installation of windows continues on smoothly)
Solved with this link:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/....._12_0.html

Fixed it by disabling the Marvel IDE, but i suppose it wasnt necessary as it doesnt affect anything. Please correct me and enlighten me if you see any discrepancies.

So yea, I proceed with installing Windows XP, formats the partition I need. Then proceeds to restart. Then an error comes out "Error loading operating system" when I DO NOT hit any key when they ask "Hit any key to boot from CD"

I then proceeded with this solution:
http://whocares.de/error-loading-operating-system/

By changing the settings of my SATA Hdd:
LBA/Large Mode to disabled. (There is only auto and disabled)

Then by doing that, I reformatted my drive again, and this time an error "A disk read error occurred, Press CrtlAltDelete to restart"
Someone in the previous link had this problem, the the topic starter stated it could be the problem with the harddisk.

Considering that it is also happening to me, and quite a number of people. I dont think its my harddisk.

Here is what you need to know about my harddisk:
1. Its not brand new, its taken from an external hdd casing
2. It doesnt have any OS installed in it, use it for data storage
3. Has three partitions, before chucking it into my computer, had one partition cleaned out to make way for the new OS

As of now, I assumed that it was my OS that has problems maybe XP isnt compatible or something. So I am downloading Windows 7 RC right now. Going to try it later while I wait for replies.

Anything that may help me? And any info you need, please ask.

Thanks

And it seems that it wasnt really harmful in a way. So, dudes. What bout my current problem T_T

Okay, by looking at the thread. Im gonna have a go with updating my BIOS first. Any other suggestions?

-edit-

Also, it still seems like his problem isn't solved. So is it something to do with the requirement of needing an IDE or something? Gosh, i got everything SATA thinking IDE is probably going to be a little obsolute

Alright ran Seatools, ran the basic short test, and it went through the thing error free. Now running the long test, just to be sure.

Any other ideas?

Should I proceed with updating the bios? How do I save the existing BIOS to my pendrive?
Ive been reading this guide and it doesnt really show how to store it in the pendrive:
http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.....#38;page=1

If the track you're on is to use ASUS EZ Flash to backup and flash up the BIOS, that sounds right to me. You should be able to read and write the BIOS to a USB flash drive. I have done this on another Asus board and I would expect this one to be similar.

As for the LBA thing, as far as I know, all modern hard drives use Logical Block Addressing (LBA). You will have to check the manual for the motherboard, but what does it mean if you disable LBA/Large Mode?