Compatibility issues are a of utmost concern when it comes to DIY-ing a personal computer, especially with so many brands and makes in the market.
With the sum of money spent, incompatibility issue is the last thing you’d want to encounter.
Is there a problem?
No, there isn’t any at all.
Let’s look at some examples. In the ASUS GeForce GTX 660 Ti Direct CU II 2 GB Graphic Card Review the setup was using an MSI Intel board + Asus nVidia card.
In the Asus Radeon HD 7870 DirectCU II TOP Graphic Card Review it was an MSI Intel board + Asus AMD card
Notice how MSI and ASUS products work together? there’s even AMD graphic card paired with an Intel processor.
I have also the following configuration running.
Work machine
Configuration : AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition on a Asus M5A97 EVO motherboard with a Sapphire HD3450 (AMD, back then was ATi) graphic card
Gaming rig #2
Configuration : Intel Core i5-760 on an ECS P55H-A with a Palit GTS 450 512MB GDDR3
HTPC rig
Configuration : Asus E35M1-M PRO (board with onboard processor) + Gigabyte HD 5450 graphic card
🙂
That also I haven’t listed the total variations that I’ve used, you may refer to the past review articles.
No Compatibility Issues at all?
The compatibility issues I encountered were regarding RAM. In my experience, it’s the performance RAM that , specifically OCZ DDR2 PC2-8500 Reaper HPC and Kingston HyperX 1600. The OCZ version just refused to work with my board (can’t remember which one) while the Kingston HyperX refuses to work with my Intel setup but works fine with my AMD setup.
Strangely though I’ve not face any issue with Value RAM, for example Kingston’s Value RAM range. Personally I don’t think it’s that a huge problem, just not a pleasant one (problems aren’t pleasant to begin with).
Normally product pages will have compatibility list for reference. It’s usually found on the board’s manual as well. You can always check before committing your purchase.
With that, I end my article. Go ahead, mix brands. Mix AMD and Intel. Mix AMD and nVidia. Mix Asus and MSI. Go ahead.
You know where to find me if you have any problems, I can’t promise solving the matter but I can always share my input. 😀