New Rig - Looking for PSU and RAM recommendations

[srsanborn]

I'm building up a new rig and am looking for suggestions on the wattage and general brand/model recommendation of a power supply unit.

The system will be used almost entirely for gaming, so I don't expect to add additional HDD/optical drives - the only thing I can forsee upgrading would be the video card, or *maybe* do something with video capturing way down the line. I'm basically looking to play current & upcoming games with high graphic settings, and be able to upgrade the vid card w/o rebuying the rest, in a few years.

Currently my partslist is:
BIOSTAR TForce965PT Socket T ATX mobo
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Conroe 1.86GHz
BFG Tech GeForce 7900GS PCI Express x16
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2 800 SDRAM (PC2 6400)
Some HDD (not sure if I'll go SATA or IDE)
Some DVD-ROM

May use these, depending on quality of onboard components:
Soundblaster Audigy2
Some old Netgear 10/100 NIC

How strong of a PSU should I get for this rig? I'm currently running an Athlon XP 2700 w/ Geforce6800/AGP and have a 500w PSU - leftover from when I ran more HDD/optical, so it's probably overkill for my current system state. Can I expect to get by on a similar psu for the new build, or am I getting into 600w territory?

Additionally, what type of PSU would you guys recommend? This is my first rig that'll use an ATX12V so I'm totally unfamiliar with those PSUs - 20 pins has always been enough for me Besides going with a brand I'd recognize (Enermax, Antec) or review ratings on newegg, I have no basis for knowing what kind to pick up.

And a RAM question: G.SKILL brand is new to me, but seems well recommended on newegg and I had a friend mention it recently. Is this stuff up to snuff, or what other RAM would you guys recommend given the rest of the partslist above?

Finally, a bonus question worth 200 points. Simple "good" or "bad" answer will suffice: How is Windows Media Center edition for gaming vs. Windows XP Pro? I dont assume there's any difference, but you never know..

 

[AznSensation]

Motherboard... meh
Get Asus P5B or Gigabyte DS-3
Get XFX 7900GS from buy.com for $130.
Get Patriot DDR2-800 RAM for $245 at newegg (one with 40 MIR. this is one with micron chip)
Get Segate 320 gig 7200.10 hdd for $93
Get Samsung 18x DVD burner with lightscribe
Onboard sound is good enough
Get Enhance 500W PSU from eWIZ for $65.

Awesome system.

 

[Roguestar]

Media Centre Edition is only worth it if you're setting it up in the living room to play movies. Go for Pro. The above suggestions are perfect, by the way.

 

[Boyo]

I would make sure you get a SATA HD. As for your PSU, you don't mention the brand, but 500W will run your new rig. IF you want to upgrade the PSU, look at the Seasonic S12 or an Enermax. I would get a 620W if you are planning on updating your card to a 8800, otherwise you are fine.

I would also recommend the Asus P5B over the Biostar.

 

[srsanborn]

Regarding the PSU issue - my current PSU is 20pin, most of the mobos I've been looking at are 24. But, good to know that 500w will still suit me.

And about Media Center, I'm ultimately looking at ability to upgrade to Vista - newegg's oems include an upgrade path, and Media Center upgrades to Home Premium (which, features wise, is more appropriate than "Business", as opposed to XP's Home v Pro) So I guess the better question would have been "will media center suffice for a few months until vista is released". What I've gathered is, for this kind of short term use, it'll be OK.

Anyway, thanks for the suggestions and replies, all. Very helpful.