First Time Computer Building- Please Help

[wombat7]

Hi everyone! This is my first time on this forum (and my first time computer building in general). I think I want to try my hand at it, but have absolutely nil experience. My budget isn't very big (250-350 ish) and I want it to be able to play older games competently, do word processing, play videos, basically be a good general purpose pc. I think I have an idea of the parts that I want, but could really use an idiot- check by somewhat who has some experience. Any ideas or just general input would be great!

This is what I have in mind:

Operating System: Linux from Ubuntu (I don't have any experience with Linux, but I've heard good things about it. Plus with my budget, I can't imagine shelling out the money for Windows.)

Tower Case: Cooler Master Elite 310 ATX
http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-Elite-Window-RC-310-RWN1-GP/dp/B002XIST2S/ref=sr_1_19?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1312921966&sr=1-19

Power Supply: Diablotek DA Series 600-Watt ATX Power Supply
http://www.amazon.com/Diablotek-600-Watt-Power-Supply-PSDA600/dp/B003UWNL2O/ref=sr_1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1312921865&sr=1-4

Graphics Card: EVGA GeForce 8400 GS 512 MB DDR3 PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card
http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-PCI-Express-Graphics-Warranty-512-P3-1300-LR/dp/B004BQKQ8A/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1312919868&sr=1-3

Ram: PNY OPTIMA 2GB (2x1GB) Dual Channel Kit DDR2 667 MHz PC2-5300 Desktop DIMM Memory Modules
http://www.amazon.com/PNY-Channel-PC2-5300-Desktop-MD2048KD2-667/dp/B000I2C80K/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1312922183&sr=1-2

Hard Drive: Western Digital 500 GB Sata 6.0 Gb-s 16 MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Bare-oem Drives
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Caviar-Cache-Desktop/dp/B00461K1QW/ref=sr_1_14?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1312922622&sr=1-14

DVD Drive: Lite-On 18X DVD-ROM IHDP118-08
http://www.amazon.com/Lite--18X-DVD-ROM-IHDP118-08-Retail/dp/B001J8B5ZQ/ref=sr_1_17?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1312923081&sr=1-17

Motherboard: Gigabyte Socket AM3/GeForce 7025/DDR3/A&V&GbE Micro ATX Motherboards
http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-Socket-GeForce-Motherboards-GA-M68MT-S2P/dp/B004MF4IB6/ref=sr_1_17?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1312923455&sr=1-17

Processor: AMD Athlon II X2 250 Processor
http://www.amazon.com/AMD-Athlon-250-Processor-ADX250OCGMBOX/dp/B003Z4PB3O/ref=sr_1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1312923562&sr=1-4

Wifi: Asus Wireless Network Adapter
http://www.amazon.com/Asus-Wireless-Network-Adapter-PCE-N13/dp/B0039GVOAM/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1312923709&sr=1-1

[wombat7]

Ok, after reading a few more articles, I've decided I probably ought to opt for nicer ram. This is what I'm thinking: Crucial CT2CP25664BA1339 4GB 2GBx2 240-pin PC3-10600 DIMM DDR3 Memory KIT
http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-CT2CP25664BA1339-240-pin-PC3-10600-Memory/dp/B001R4BT1M/ref=sr_1_5?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1313031334&sr=1-5

[RickyTick]

Don't expect a lot of gaming power from it, but it should play some older games fairly well.

[wombat7]

How does Linux do for gaming? I've heard good things about Ubuntu, but is there another distro that you would reccomend?

[RickyTick]

Games are fairly limited on Ubuntu, but there are some good games that you can play like America's Army or Enemy Territory.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Games/NotPackaged

Here are a few more games on Ubuntu.
http://blog.sudobits.com/2011/03/07/top-10-ubuntu-games/

Something you have to consider is whether a driver is available for your video card. Also, last time I checked, you can't play Netflix on Ubuntu.

[wombat7]

What about playing windows games on ubuntu? I've heard of some program called wine that is supposed to do that, but maybe that was for a different distro. I kind of feel like I am getting in over my head here... Bottom line I'm trying to make something better than what I have now which is a Acer laptop with a AMD Athlon 64 processor Tf-20 (1.6ghz), ATI Radeon HD3200 Graphics card, 3gb ram, 160 gig hard drive. I only play things like diablo 2, elder scrolls 3: morrowind, civilization 4, and some old heroes of might and magic games. I like the idea of being able to upgrade down the road, and frankly would like to become a little more computer- savvy. And, like I said before, I'm kinda doing this on a shoestring. So what do you reccomend?

[RickyTick]

Yeah, I use Wine to run some Windows programs, but not everything will run on Wine. You may have to check the Ubuntu forums to see what games will play or not. Or check out www.WineHQ.org

[wombat7]

Thanks for the info. So Ubuntu is the distro that you reccomend? They are kind of hard to compare.