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Question

Need help confirming new PC build is OK

Dec 21, 2014 7:01AM PST

So I have decided for the first time to build my own PC, my last two PCs were store bought and both honestly weren't as good as how much I paid for them. Some friends have told me to build my own so I did my research and basically copy/pasted a "sample build" from another site. My biggest fear is dropping $1100 on a PC and then when putting it together finding out the Motherboard is incompatible with something or there is not fan/an insufficient fan for the heat coming out etc. So what I'm asking of you very smart people here at CNET is if you could tell me how to confirm that these pieces will work with each other or just flat out tell me they will/won'. Thanks in advance for all of your wisdom!

Motherboard: ASus Z97-A

CPU: Intel Corei5-4690K

RAM: Crucial Ballstix sport 8GB DDR3 1600 MHz

Video Card: Gigabyte R9 290 4GB

Hard Drive: WD Blue 1 TB

Optical Drive: Asus 24x DVD Burner

Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower

Power Supply: XFX 550 Watts

Monitor:
ViewSonic VA2246M-LED 22-Inch LED Monitor

Also let me know what you think of the build, if there's anything I'm missing/something that could be improved upon. I'm basically at max budget so I can't really "upgrade" anything but if there are any serious flaws I would like to know.

Discussion is locked

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Answer
From what I can see, your PS is a bit thin
Dec 21, 2014 8:04PM PST

You've also chosen the unlocked version of the CPU which might suggest you plan to OC it. If that's the case, you might want to bump up the PS and make sure it can supply the needed amperage.

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Answer
Iffy
Dec 21, 2014 11:43PM PST

If the budget is at the max you might want to consider dropping the gpu back a notch and upping the psu a notch or two.

Is this ram 1x8GB or 2x4GB?