Better motherboard?

[moabak]

I hope to build the following system. But I'm wondering if there is a better motherboard I could use? That isn't to much more expensive? Any other areas that I could cheaply improve upon? This is loosely based on the $500 system on the site.

PROCESSOR AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition $145
MOTHERBOARD ASRock M3A770DE $60
RAM G.Skill 4 GB (2 x 2 GB) DDR3-1333 (PC3 10600) Model F3-10666CL9D-4GBNS $40
VIDEO CARDS 2 - E145-0218 ::EVGA 01G-P3-1312-LR GeForce 210 Video Card - 1024MB DDR3, PCI-Express 2.0, DVI, HDMI, VGA, Low Profile(1.6 lbs) $103.98
Hard Drive Samsung Spinpoint F4 HD322GJ/U 320GB SATA 3Gb/s $43
Case Antec Three Hundred Gaming Case External 3 X 5.25; Internal 6 X 3.5 2*Usb2.0 $60 walmart
Power Coolmax CU-700B Power Supply - 700-Watt, ATX, SLI-Ready, Three 12V Rails $45
Optical Lite-On 24X DVD Burner SATA iHAS 124-04 $17

 

[crewton]

First, I want to warn you about that graphics card...if you are trying to game that is not a graphics card that is a video card i.e. you won't be gaming with it.

Second, that psu is terrible and you should stay away from it!

Third, you can do better than an AMD system for 500.


cpu and mobo:i3 2100 and P8H67 $194

psu: CORSAIR 500W $60 $10MIR

Graphic card: Sapphire 100282XTREME Radeon HD 5850 $150

RAM G.Skill 4 GB (2 x 2 GB) DDR3-1333 (PC3 10600) Model F3-10666CL9D-4GBNS $40

Case Antec Three Hundred Gaming Case External 3 X 5.25; Internal 6 X 3.5 2*Usb2.0 $60 walmart

Optical Lite-On 24X DVD Burner SATA iHAS 124-04 $17

Hard Drive Samsung Spinpoint F4 HD322GJ/U 320GB SATA 3Gb/s $43


Those that you picked are fine That comes out to be $564 ($10MIR). I don't know what your budget is but that is fairly close to it...if you are ok going further I'd also suggest buying a 1TB HDD for $62 but that's another $19 to your budget.

 

[moabak]

I don't want to game with it. I just want to run 3 monitors for business purposes.

 

[crewton]

oooo, sorry I assumed gaming when you based it off the $500 system. You can still run 3 monitor set ups using any 5xxx or 6xxx series radeon cards with eyefinity. It will save you from having to buy 2 cards in that case.

 

[moabak]

What if I kept with the same processor ( phenom II x4 955) and went with this mobo:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131402

 

[crewton]

If you want some upgradeability to the motherboard I'd pick a AM3+ board like http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131728&cm_re=am3%2b-_-13-131-728-_-Product $65 or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128490&cm_re=am3%2b-_-13-128-490-_-Product $95 as it has usb3 and supports 16GB. That way if you wanted to upgrade the cpu down the road when AMD rolls out its new line of cpus you won't have to upgrade the motherboard as well.

 

[moabak]

Dumb question number 43. My monitors are old. And only have the multi-pin blue and white connectors. How would I plug the third monitor into the hdmi(?) slot on the eyefinity cards?

 

[crewton]

Yes, you can get a converter like http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812186115&cm_re=hdmi_to_dvi-_-12-186-115-_-Product.