Building a bare minimum gaming rig, is everything compatable and fine?

[SeanB9]

AMD Phenom II X4 965 AM3 3.4Ghz 512KB 45NM 125W 4000MHZ

Gigabyte AMD 760G + SB710 Chipset DDR3 1333 AM3+ Micro ATX Motherboard (GA-78LMT-S2P)

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 550 Ti 1GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 DVI-I/HDMI/D-Sub SLI Ready Graphics Card GV-N550D5-1GI (Won't be doing SLI any time soon but I imagine I'd need a larger psu by then).

Corsair Builder Series CX 500 Watt ATX/EPS 80 PLUS (CX500)

Corsair XMS3 8 GB (2 x 4GB) 1333 MHz PC3-10666 240-Pin DDR3 Memory Kit CMX8GX3M2A1333C9

Western Digital Caviar Blue 500 GB SATA III 7200 RPM 16 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Desktop Hard Drive - WD5000AAKX

Thermaltake V3 Black AMD Edition Gaming Chassis Mid Tower Steel Computer Case VL800P1W2N (Because it looks fancy).

and Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64bit (Full) obviously.

Concerns;
Is the brand of hdd I chose good? I seem to get a lot of mixed reviews. Reliability issues and all that jazz.
Would this 500W psu be able to run my components fine?

 

[darth pravus]

All seems well to me. The WD blue have a fairly good warranty and your PSU is a good choice and should be reliable and is plenty for the system.

 

[SeanB9]

Upon reviewing the components, I noticed the 550Ti needs a 6 pin external power connector. The mbo I chose doesn't seem to have that, unless I'm missing it.

 

[socialfox]

I believe that 6 pin connector comes from the power supply not the motherboard (if that's what you meant by mbo). Your power supply has 2 PCI-E connectors which is good for more demanding video cards and the including one. On a side note I do not think that motherboard supports crossfire/sli since you only have 1 PCI-E x16 slot.

 

[SeanB9]

I believe that 6 pin connector comes from the power supply not the motherboard (if that's what you meant by mbo). Your power supply has 2 PCI-E connectors which is good for more demanding video cards and the including one. On a side note I do not think that motherboard supports crossfire/sli since you only have 1 PCI-E x16 slot.

My mistake. I keep forgetting I downgraded the Motherboard from another one. Thank you for the reply, I feel reassured now about the 6 pin connector, you are correct.