Ok im not exactly building it but theres a cool comp shop near me and well he makes comps for cheap...this is what i know i need: 512 DDR RAM AMD Athlon XP 2.5Ghz Windows 98 But im stuck on the other components...like video card, sound card, modem, fans etc. id appreciate any help, thanx b4 hand!

buy a ATI video card or nvida card, depending on your budget, the radeon 9500 is a good deal. there are also other good cards available from them. for a soundcard buy a audigy soundblaster card , again depending on your budget, there are many different flavours to chose from. im not sure why u would go for windows 98? its true they are pretty stable but consider windows xp pro if u can afford it.. what mother board are u getting with your athlon 2500? i would reccomend the asus a7n8x board. hope this helps..

The SoundBlaster Audigy is really good. I would reccommend it.

If you're willing to get a great video card for a decent price, get geforce 4 ti 4200 or geforce fx 5700 ultra which is dx9. for hdd get a 60gb dma hdd, since you dont really need a lot of hdd space.

Howzit, What sort of prices are you talking of. Say 512 meg 333 ddr ram?

With regards to spec it all depends on your budget the lowest spec video card I would buy new now would be an FX5200. I'm about to build myself a gaming comp and this is going to be my spec: MSI K7N2 Delta-L Mobo Athlon XP2800 512mb of ddr ram (3200) 80gb HD Radeon 9600 Pro Graphics (I would consider this to be middle of the range) I think this should run any game for a year or so, then I'll prolly be able to afford what would now be considered top of the range graphic card update say FX5950 or a 9800 pro. Hopefully that will give me some more time before I will change the mobo and cpu again, more ram etc. Of course games change at a very quick pace and its difficult to say for sure how long before stuff is outdated. Thats my thoughts anyway. Cheers Ming

Personally i'm more into graphics than sound.. but .. amd's nforce2 chips with onboard sound are actually really good. That can shave a good 100 bucks off that cost rather than buying a sound card. Most of them nowadays support 6 channel sound. Motherboards are getting better and better each day. You can find a great mobo with S-ata , LAN , sound and overclocking capabilities for around 80 bucks. A good mobo like that will save you some cash in the long run. Video cards, everyone has their own opinions. ATI radeon 9500 pro is great.. but they aren't being made anymore so they are hard to come by. As is the 9700pro. The geforce ti4200 is a great card for the cash. Although it is nice to use a high end card. Personally i use a radeon 9800pro 128mb and it is godly. Prices are dropping every week so keep an eye out for them. Now they are nearing 330 and some of them are going to actually give you a ticket for half life 2. Monitor's are usually over looked. I bought a flat screen LED. I regret it though. I suggested to my friend to buy a flat screen CRT and now i'm incredibly jealous. :( Although the flat crt's are huge on desktop space you will definately like the picture better than a flat LED for video games. I always build computers with 1 gb of memory. XP is heavy on memory.. and with mininum requirements leading to 512 memory i like to be a step ahead. But these choices are price heavy. So.. good luck. Before going to your local shop.. shop around make sure you're getting a good deal. Hope this helps at all.. good luck.