Mobo / GFX Advice

[IPswich12]

First off, thank you all for your endeavoring to help me out, it is much appreciated.

I am building a new system, and I'm having trouble choosing a motherboard and graphics card. I'm on a bit of a budget here, so I'm looking to spend around $100 on the mobo and around $200 on the gfx (if that's possible??). I already have an Athlon 64X2, so it has to be an AM2 comp. board.

Here's what I'm looking to do with the machine:
■Game (think CS:Source and similar at pretty high fps)
■Design (Flash/Photoshop)
■Watch HDTV (I have a 28" monitor already, so I definitely want HDMI support)

Any recommendations?

Also, should I be looking for the HDMI out on the mobo or the gfx card??

 

[kitsilencer]

Look to invest more on your mobo. It's probably the most important component of your system:

It dictates what GPU's, memory, CPU you can use
It dictates how much overclock is stable
You build everything around it
You'll change/upgrade it the least often.

I honestly wouldn't spend less than $170 for a good board.

 

[auscanzukus]

BIOSTAR TFORCE TA790GX A2+ $100 newegg

Good for Phenom as well, shall you upgrade the cpu.

HD 4850 or 9800 GTX+. There are many best bang gpu choices in the $200 range.

 

[IPswich12]

thanks for the advice guys...after looking around a lot more i realize im probably going to have to shell out more for a good mobo. I was looking at this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128352 , does that seem like a good option? I'm looking to OC a little bit, nothing major, and to eventually go SLI.

 

[auscanzukus]

That's more or less the same as Biostar's in terms of overclockability. Feature-wise, the GB is better. However, that's an AMD chipset so you can't sli on it:

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ClassValue=Motherboard&ProductID=2887&ProductName=GA-MA790GP-DS4H

But you can crossfire on it.

 

[IPswich12]

wow, can't believe i overlooked the chipset, thank you for pointing that out!

I usually go with nvidia, but from what I hear ATI has some great cards out.

I was thinking of going for this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121253

do you think its worth the extra cash over the nvidia card i was considering? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133232

There is a $30 rebate on the ATI card, for the sake of a fair comparison.

Thanks again for the help!

 

[auscanzukus]

Most def. $150 is a steal. There's no competition from nvidia in that price range.