A First Timer at Building a PC!

[Crazer]

I am building my first pc and have a couple of questions. Here is a brief list of the parts going into it:

Antec case w/400 watt PS
2.66 P4
Gigabyte GA-8SQ800
1 Stick of CORSAIR MEMORY XMS Extreme Memory Speed Series, Low Latency 512MB 64MX64 PC-3200LL With Heat Spreaders.
Radeon 9700 Pro
WD 120 gig 8mb cache

I've read a couple of posts on here about whether to use 1 or 2 sticks of memory. With this setup should I use the 1 stick I'm getting or should I have used 2 256 matched sticks?
Also does the cpu and board I've chosen give me anything to OC with using the stock heatsink and fan?
When installing the cpu and heatsink do I need some Artic Silver or is there some kinda compound with the cpu retail kit that will work just as good?

Yes, as you can tell by my questions I am completely new to this and would appreciate all the help I can get from some experienced techs.
Thanks,
Larry

 

[DannyBoy]

Try and keep to 1 stick of memory. you keep the free slot and in some cases see a slight bit of xtra performance

 

[DannyBoy]

Its a retail processor and HSF right? It should come with the compound already there for you.

Off to bed now

Dan

 

[mechBgon]

The Gigabyte you're getting has a dual-channel memory controller and would surely benefit from two identical sticks of memory.