First time building questions

Initial Selection:

• $90 -- GIGABYTE LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX All Solid Capacitor Intel Motherboard
• $110 - Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
• $90 -- ENERMAX Liberty ELT500AWT ATX12V 500W Power Supply
• $45 -- G.SKILL 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory Model
• $180 - Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 2.66GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor
• $30 -- Creative Sound Blaster SB0570 Audigy SE 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card
• $80 -- MSI GeForce 8600GTS 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card
• $55 -- COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 Black/Silver Aluminum Bezel, SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
• $9 --- Logitech 967740-0403 Black USB Standard Internet 350 USB Keyboard
• $689 - total

What I can reuse:

• DVD-ROM gdr8163b ATA Device
• Samsung Spinpoint 500 GB harddrive
• Logitech wireless mouse
• XP professional 32-bit and Vista Business 32-bit CD's free from MSDNAA
• 22'' Acer LCD

Activities:

• Havn't played games in 2 years, so will probably just play outdated games no more demanding than Unreal Tournament 3.
• Mostly 2D graphics design and web design
• Music listening

Questions before I buy:

• 1) I'm planning to install XP (with minimum partition because I only need to run one program: Internet explorer 6) and Vista on the fresh new harddrive (which I will use 90% of the time). Is this hard to do? Can the partition be made before any OS is installed?
• 2) Are the above brands known for giving good drivers for both XP and Vista?
• 3) Should I get a mobo with SLI support? The reason I did not choose to get one this time is because SLI disables dual screen. Will it support dual screen in the future?
• 4) Most importantly, does the PSU and mobo support all those parts? I'm not particularly sure what connection my old DVD drive needs.
• 5) Is it better to get PSU's with a single high current 12V rail or many lower current 12V rails?
• 6) Does everything come with all I need? Do I need to buy extra wires and stuff?

Looks like a pretty solid build. The is an excellent motherboard choice. Dont worry about getting a SLI motherboard, since you dont play demanding games and, SLIing anything but 8800's or better is pointless. Partitioning is very simple. Just use the software that comes with the hardrive. And yes you partion BEFORE you install the OS.
Dont get a 8600gt, and dont buy from MSI (From my experiance). If you want to play UT3 it really would help to get a video card with a little more power, especially at that resolution. Can you afford a few more dollars? If you can get this.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130332
You will be much happier. If not, get a 3650. I like this one. It would be able to play UT3, but not nearly as well as the 8800gs.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102725
Yes the motherboard and PSU do support all those parts. But, you dont nees such a expensive PSU. This will serve you well.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817139003
Since you are buying everything retail, all cables should come also.
Post anymore questions you may have!!

Yes the PSU i posted is a one rail psu. There is much controversy over which is better and people have argued over it since the dawn of time lol. I honestly am no electrician, but heres a artical i found a while back that helped me understand rails better.
http://www.pcpower.com/technology/myths/#m8

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817339012

I will not be able to say which is better since I am inexperienced in PSU design/workings. You can PM Zorg with your questions. He knows best when it comes comes to PSUs.

Sorry for going off topic, but in what way is modular PSU better? I'm building a rig too, so it's a good time to ask.

It allows you to use only the wires you need. It avoids clutter. Non-modular PSU's have all the wires fixed in.

You can get the Corsair VX 550 (non modular) cheaper than the 450 @newegg;
http://www.buy.com/prod/Corsair-VX [...] 52646.html

Good deal on the 520W modular unit too;
http://www.buy.com/prod/corsair-52 [...] 70716.html

Why is the shipping $50 for Newegg? They don't bundle together these components? So there's really no point buying exclusively from them?

You could always cut out the extra connections (physically cut them out and put electrical tape around each lead, or if you want to be neat desolder them, I have done this before).

@OP: Are you building it your self or getting some one else to build it?

The shipping they charge you is just the sum of each individual component's shipping charge. In my opinion, you're better off buying from multiple retailers at the cheapest price you can get.

Here are some places that have your parts for cheaper:
Gigabyte DS3L: http://www.clubit.com/product_deta [...] o=A4830813 ($81.99 + $7.49 shipping)
Enermax 500W PSU: http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Prod [...] ode=270341 ($73.99 AR + shipping)

Do you really need the sound card? Onboard sound has come a long way. Usually people say to go for one of the extremes: onboard sound or an X-Fi sound card. Anything inbetween doesn't seem to be worth the money.

I thought that if a cheap sound card only marginally increases the sound quality, it will still take the sound processing load off of the CPU.

also check out eGOODs.com most part free shipping

Creative is NOT known for good Vista drivers.

Agreed.

Nope!

Do you need a sound card to use 5.1 or can the onboard audio play it?