PC hardware forum: 1st time build + compatibility check

One place you don't want to skimp is the PSU. Go with at least a 80+ Bronze of a well reviewed brand. Silver or Gold even better. Modular is much nicer to work with, Just make sure its an ATX. There are power requirement calculators on the web, (Google "how big of a power supply do I need for my system?") I would stay away from OCZ brand, even though they may not be bottom of the barrel, they're still pretty hit or miss. I bought a ZT 550w 80+ bronze from them and the main power cable wouldn't seat properly. In order for them to send me another one they want me to take a picture of it blah blah, blah, blah. Basically I had to buy a different one, (PC Power & Cooling 750w 80+ Silver MK 2) -wish I'd gone that route in the first place, I was trying to save $$$,instead I'm out $70.00...to heavy to mail to them .... I didn't realise how many shoddy parts are being sold out there.

You also are going to want a decent Graphics card (Intel's integrated graphics are really incapable of doing many games.)
I bought a Sapphire 6850 HD 1 gb ddr5 (with a free Dirt 3 Game) --If I was going to do it over, I'd probably get the 6870, but Oh well... I went AMD because you can run multi monitors with just one card.

Everything you've listed looks compatable, I'd also look at after-market CPU cooling, and possibly an sd card reader for your floppy bay (if you have one)

Oh and thermal Paste and a non magnetized screw driver! I'd also recommend an anti-static wrist band.

Let us know how it goes!


My system:
Lian Li K7B Mid tower
i7-2600k
Sabertooth z77
Coolermaster Hyper TX3 (maxed out at 60c running Prime95)
Crucial 16gb ddr3 1600 Ballistix
samsung 128 gb ssd sata 3
OCZ Octane 128gb ssd sata 3
Seagate Barracuda 1 tb 7200rpm HDD sata 3
Hitachi Deskstar 2tb 7200rpm sata 3
Iocrest usb 3.0 hub
Sony optiarc dvd-cd-r-rw
Rosewill usb 2.0 internal 3.5" all-in-one card reader
intuos3 PTZ-630
Adobe CS5, Lightroom