Scott,
The comparability I was referring to was along the lines of, SATA optical drive for your SATA slot on the motherboard. Certain ram works better for certain motherboards, that sort o thing.
The motherboard specs on any site you look them up should tell you which ram to buy for it and also what SATA you can support.
This is why we're here. Ask questions and we'll help. If you see a barebones system you like, link to it and we can suggest the best hardware to go with it for your budget.
We may need to start moving these discussions off list as there seems to be a ton of hardware talk lately.
////Greg Balint
///Art Director / Motion Graphics Designer
Ram, HDDs/ SSDs, video cards, network cards if needed, optical drives, etc can all be pretty simple installations and you can save a lot just getting a barebones system and installing compatible parts yourself.
I was totally gung-ho until i got to the word 'compatible.' How does one know if something is compatible? Should i just pick from the options available from the builder? This is the kind of thing that sends me scurrying back to the safety of a prebuilt system.
