Yet another compatibility check :D

So I'm back for this years double check for a computer I'm building. The main concern here is that this is a reasonable motherboard to house all the other junk I'm putting on it.

Case

Motherboard

HDD

Video Card

Power Supply

RAM

CPU/Heatsink combo

I've got DVD drives and windows taken care of, so don't worry about reminding me of those two things.

So that's about it, anybody want to tell me whether that's a decent motherboard for the build? The one thing I always get lost on is people discussing performance loss due to bottlenecks and what-not (which I don't quite understand yet, but that's partially due to my lack of research).

Any other recommendations are more than welcome

I'm trying to keep the build to around 900 bucks or so, with what's listed above, a DVD drive, and Windows, the total is right around 890 or so, just FYI

MOBO:
Mother board is good and bad. I like that the pci x16 2.0 doesn't block all slots for potential soundcards, you might still be able to use the x1 in the first lane, as long as the card clears the northbridge. I don't get why msi put the 12v next to pci lanes though- I like the traditional upper left corner to avoid messes with other interfering hardware such as video card cables or the cpu cooler. I like the layout of the ram slots, if it will let you boot with your ram on the blue slots then you can avoid any potential clearance issues with the cooler. IMO the onboard video is the selling point, vga/dvi/hdmi really adds value to the board. In a pinch you could use the onboard to test your gpu.

It looks pretty nice cosmetically, no bright offsetting neon colors to stick out like an eyesore. I don't know why they saw it fit to put ide and floppy slots there, it makes it look too busy and anyone still using those devices will have a tough time with cable management in that area. I also wish they would have used dual ps/2 ports instead of putting one ps/2 and then sticking the usb's further away. It's simpler to keep it in the same spot, and the less usb devices you need, the better. There doesn't seem to be any special features, so you'd just have to wait and find out what the bios lets you do. Hopefully it's not terribly difficult to navigate like certain biostar/asrock boards. The north and southbridge don't appear to have the greatest cooling solution, so you may want to upgrade it in the future at some point. All in all it's not a bad 880g. If it were me though i'd go with Gigabyte or Asus due to reputation.

I'll just say what I always say, especially since it's only a 600W PSU and you're using a nVidia card: did you check Newegg's PSU Calculator?

you can upgrade to a full sized atx motherboard instead of going with a micro atx. that way you'll have the capability of runnin your video cards in sli in the future in 2.0 x 16 slots instead of using the normal pcie slots.

other than that suggestion. ( not a big deal by the way just something to ponder ) its a pretty good build. all parts are compatible.

That hard drive is good, although it's a "green drive" so that comes with power limitations. In order to keep power down, they use a technology called intellipower, which keeps power usage down by regulating the maximum speed the drive can go. This speed is capped off near 5400rpm, so don't expect the drive to be very fast. WD is still a great name for hard drives, I would say try the Caviar blue or black 7200 rpm drives, go down to 1tb to save some "green". Samsung's are great too, but 2tb is likely more than you'll make use of unless you are doing a ton of projects and keeping massive amounts of videos, games, and songs on your computer. I'm not saying don't get the green, but I think long term you may be happier with a drive that runs faster. I consider 5400 and under to be slow.