A couple questions before I install OSx86

[DWells55]

Hi, I plan on installing OS X on my PC and was wondering if someone could help me with a couple questions before I start. If it helps, here's my system configuration:

 

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice - MMX (+), 3DNow! (+), SSE, SSE2, SSE3, x86-64

Motherboard: MSI MS-7125 K8N Neo4 (unsure what model/revision)

Memory: 512MB Generic DDR400

Video card: ATi 256MB X600/X550 Series (fairly sure that it's an X600)

Monitor: Acer 19" Widescreen LCD, 1440x900 @ 60Hz over DVI

NIC: D-Link DFE-530TX+ revF 10/100 (I'm okay with either a static IP or DHCP)

HDD: Hitachi Deskstar connected using SATA

CD/DVD: Pioneer DVR-111D DVD-RW and Lite-On CD-RW, both IDE

 

I checked the HCL for 10.4.8, and the CPU, a revision of my motherboard, and my video card are all listed as working. It's noted that the X600 needs some "CallistoFB" fix in order to get resolutions other than 1024x768 and enable QE/CI which so far I've researched to be some sort of hardware acceleration and fairly important. My main concern is my network card which appears to be somewhat iffy. All I got from searching was a thread complaining about the only thread with links to fixes being dead. So that didn't help.

 

Anyways, I'm already starting to get ahead of myself. Before I worry about specific hardware, I'm unsure as to what version of OS X to install. So far I've read that it'll be easier to start with 10.4 rather than 10.5 since I'm new to this and I don't think this system's specs are necessarily capable of running the newer 10.5. 10.4.8 seems to be the most widely talked about which is why I checked the 10.4.8 HCL. However, there's also 10.4.9, 10.4.10, and 10.4.11 and various image files floating around the net. I'm not sure which to go with, whether the updates are necessary, how and when to go about them, etc.

 

So in summary, my questions come down to:

1. Which CD image do you recommend I use to install OS X given my system specs? There's so many versions and different releasers that I got kinda confused.

2. How difficult is configuring/fixing my video card and network card? I'm capable of installing drivers and such in Windows and I have a bit of experience with FreeBSD and various Linux distros, so I am capable of using the command line and editing files and such if necessary so long as the details on what to edit are given.

3. Are there any noticeable problems in my system specs in terms of performance or capability that I missed?

 

 

Sorry for the long post, I just like to be sure I get all the details out there to start instead of making someone ask for more info. Thanks in advance for any help you guys can offer and in the meantime I'll continue searching and reading.

 

 

EDIT: By the way, using the NIC on the motherboard is not an option since it fried when our house was hit by lightning. It has since been disabled in the motherboard's BIOS.

[DWells55]

Anyone? I know it's a long post, but just skip to the summary if you must. I'd really like to try OSx86 out and just need a little bit of guidance.