I'm planning on building a new computer for class, but I've never built one before. I'm going to get a lot of help along the way, but I need some feedback on the hardware and the potential compatibility issues before I make the purchase. It has to be under 800 USD. So here you go.

Antec Performance I P180B Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel for durability through the majority of chassis 1.0mm cold rolled steel around the 4 x HDD area ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
$129.99 (Case)
ASUS A8N-SLI Premium Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard – Retail
$133.99 (Mobo)
CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) System Memory Model VS1GB400C3 – Retail
$98.99 (RAM)
SAMSUNG 18X DVD±R DVD Burner With 12X DVD-RAM Write Black E-IDE/ATAPI Model SH-S182D - OEM
$30.99 (DVD±R Burner)
HITACHI Deskstar 7K160 HDS721680PLA380 (0A32727) 80GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
$43.99 (Hard Drive)
APEVIA (ASPIRE) ATX-CW500WP4 ATX 500W Power Supply - Retail
$39.99 (Power Supply)
eVGA 256-P2-N554-AX Geforce 7600GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
$139.99 (Video Card)
AMD Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego 2.4GHz Socket 939 Processor Model ADA4000BNBOX - Retail
$139.99 (Processor)
SONY Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive Windows 98SE/ ME/ 2000/ XP - OEM
$7.99 (Floppy)
VANTEC SF12025L 120mm Case Fan - Retail
$11.99 (Case Fan)
ZALMAN CNPS3100+ 2 Ball CPU Cooling Fan with Heatsink - Retail
$18.99 (CPU Heatsink)
$796.89

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811129017
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131540
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145505
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827151133
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822145127
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817148027
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130017
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103529
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16821103116
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811999614
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835118102

The only thing I would suggest is finding engineering specs on compatible ram through the motherboard website. Unfortunately, I don't believe Asus cares much about being this helpful, but I may be wrong. Intel boards are the sure shot stable boards...

I'm pretty sure that the ram would be compatible. I build computers for my small business and generally speaking they usually have very good instructions. Looks like it's going to be a pretty nice system. Good Luck!

I say ditch the hitachi HD. I have mad many problems with that brand as well as Maxtor at work. More trouble than they are worth. Stick with Western Digital or my favorite Seagate (5 year warranty)

I agree with mlewis, and get a larger HD, 80 is kind of small these days! Good Luck.