Victorshoe :
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/16q18
For the short term, I'm going with a relatively good motherboard with crossfire support and the Phenom II 965 cpu. I'm going low-priced on the gpu with only a Sapphire Radeon 6670. Power supply looks good, and the case supports 3.0 usb header. Does this look like it will be appropriate as a short term pc build? Does it have a lot of room to expand should I invest in costlier parts? Much obliged for any advice or answers.
yeah... Asrock makes great intel motherboards... and their extreme linup is fantastic for intel. AMD not so much. The Asrock brand on the amd side is a bit hit and miss, their whole AMD product lineup is plagued with quality control issues. I would not advise someone get an asrock mb for an amd cpu. Gigabyte and Asus make the best AMD motherboards... the gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 is about the same price as that asrock and one of the best overclocking boards you can touch for an amd cpu (right up there with a sabertooth... which is also a much better amd board then intel).
setting that aside... you can get a 7770 for $84, $10 more then the $77 you're wasting your money on the 6670. A 7770 is almost x2 the gpu a 6670 is... I got a MSI 7770 OC/Ghz Ed 1gb GDDR5 gpu for $84 3 days ago. Such an insane value for a voltage unlocked gpu. Love it. You gotta shop smarter then that.
If you're gonna spend $85 on a 4 year old PhII, you might as well find $30 more for a FX6300, which can be had for $115... and not worry about wasting money in the short term.
So the biggest changes i see are...
1) get a GA-990FXA-UD3 for the same price (or go cheaper with a Asus M5A97 R2.0, and save $40, still a great overclocker)
2) get a HD 7770 for +$10
3) get a FX 6300 for +$30
Spend $40 more and don't worry about upgrading your new pc down the road. Or spend a little less on the mb and spend the same ammount of cash on a superior system. Personally i'd get the ASUS mb, and find $30 for a hyper evo 212 cpu cooler... but that's me.