Am2+ advice for non-gamer - 790gx or not?

[bpbIP]

I am new to AMD builds and am looking for some advice on what motherboard to use. I plan to pair with a phenom II 940. I am not interested in gaming and will likely never use the system to play games; I am mainly upgrading to give myself a better rig for video encoding and something that will run Windows 7 better than my current setup can.

I am on a somewhat tight budget and since I have no intention of gaming I was considering going with a 790gx board and using the on-board graphics rather than using a discrete graphics card. I know everyone's first reaction is "don't do on-board graphics!" but keep in mind I don't plan to play games on the system. That being said, if anyone has any performance-based or budget-based reasons why this seems like a bad idea and has some suggestions for alternatives, I'd love to hear them.

Also, if 790gx seems like a good idea, does anyone have recommendations for a good 790gx motherboard?

Thanks!

 

[o1die]

The biostar 790 is only $89.99 at newegg. Try downloading the board manual off biostar's website and read parts of it, including the bios adjustments and memory recommendations. The board has gotten mixed reviews, but that's not unusual. If you're not a gamer, then the 940 is overkill. I would go with one of the 45w dual core cpus, such as the 4850e. Also possible is using the opteron quad core 1354 server cpu for $74.99 with a gigabyte board. The gigabyte board has a bios that can recognize some opteron cpus. This model only uses 75 watts, and the heatsink is sold separately.

 

[marco324]

get the quad phenom II 940 get a video card for for video encoding the gpu of the video card does video encoding
too you don't need an expensive one 50 to 70 bucks get you one good enough maybe someone with more expertise can help better the 790gx looks like an nvidia card is best a 9600gso or better?
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/is_era_gpubased_computing_really_upon_us
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3339
for the motherboard are you going to use ddr2 or ddr3 memory

 

[bpbIP]

Planning to use DDR2, which is why I was looking at am2+ boards rather than am3. Am3 boards and CPUs and DDR3 seem comparatively expensive right now and most accounts I've read say the performance difference isn't worth the extra cash.

 

[marco324]

good deal going on right now 9600gso $34.99 After Rebate Free Call Of Duty: World at War Game good game to
give to someone or sell for the price of the card
http://www.fatwallet.com/top-deals/free-call-of-duty-world-at-war-game-with-purchase-of-nvidia-en9600gso-video-card/
this seems like a good value board ? with onboard graphics too ATI Radeon HD 3200
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135235
http://www.tbreak.com/articles/44/7/ECS-A780GM-A-Ultra/Page7.html
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/904/6/