Building a Rig. Monitor.

Been building a rig (takes me forver to save up for parts, so I've getting a part (gpu, psu, cpu, mobo, case, etc) a month on average).

The biggest and most expensive component is the monitor (at least for my build).

Considering.
ASUS VE248H
Newegg.com - Asus VE248H Black 24" 1920X1080 2ms Full HD HDMI LED Backlight LCD Monitor w/Speakers 250 cd/m2 10,000,000:1
I like it b/c price is decent, I like asus products, has triple versatility with ports (vga, dvi, hdmi), 2ms refresh and the like and has hdcp support. (do the ones below?)



I was orginally looking a the Viewsonic 2431
Newegg.com - ViewSonic VA2431WM Glossy Black 23.6" 5ms Widescreen Full HD 1080P LCD Monitor Built-in Speakers 300 cd/m2 DC 100,000:1(1000:1) Built-in Speakers


or 2450
Newegg.com - ViewSonic VX2450wm-LED Black 24" (23.6" Vis) LED Backlight LCD monitor

and because it was my first consideration, I was reluctant to peel away from the viewsonic. The price must be 160 to 210, but was also eyeing viewsonic VA2702, but which is outside that price range.


Most of my work is infront of a monitor, which is why for the past many months I have considered and reconsidered tons of monitors (I like sticking with asus or viewsonic though).

Also, this GPU

Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GV-N440D3-1GI GeForce GT 440 (Fermi) 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card

is what I was considering (mainly because of all three types of display ports) and low price. How will that hold up with games/moderate graphics processing (GIMP) and whatnot. I am pretty certain it will function and it looks very decent and great, just concerned b/c of low price compared to other gpus.

Also, what constitutes the $10.00 price difference between these two almost identical (?) mobos?

ASUS M4A87TD EVO AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
Newegg.com - ASUS M4A87TD EVO AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

ASUS M5A87 AM3+ AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
Newegg.com - ASUS M5A87 AM3+ AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

What's the difference between AM3 and AM3+??

Thanks.

I don't have the knowledge to answer all your questions (sorry), but there's one thing that does bother me about the videocard you're looking at (the GT 440)... it says "1GB 128-bit DDR3."
A 128-bit memory bus on the videocard will slow things down quite a lot...more common nowadays is a 256-bit bus. I don't know what others think about this, but I consider the memory bandwidth pretty important, in addition to the memory size and type. Otherwise fill rates and texture bandwidth will just be limited too much and really cut into your framerates. For non-game processing like GIMP it probably won't matter that much, though.

The M5A87 has a single PCI-E 16X graphics slot, so Crossfire wouldn't be an option with it.

AM3+ sockets are supposed to be compatible with the forthcoming FX ("Bulldozer") CPUs. AM3 will not be.

In the $100 price range, I'd suggest a card based on the Radeon HD 6770 graphics processor. It would outperform an nVidia GT440. (I've preferred nVidia's drivers in the past, but AMD looks stronger in the midrange. A GTX560 is a popular choice, but it'd be more like $180.)

Corazon said:

I don't have the knowledge to answer all your questions (sorry), but there's one thing that does bother me about the videocard you're looking at (the GT 440)... it says "1GB 128-bit DDR3."
A 128-bit memory bus on the videocard will slow things down quite a lot...more common nowadays is a 256-bit bus. I don't know what others think about this, but I consider the memory bandwidth pretty important, in addition to the memory size and type. Otherwise fill rates and texture bandwidth will just be limited too much and really cut into your framerates. For non-game processing like GIMP it probably won't matter that much, though.

Bollocks. I hate changing a part once I've decided on it. But because it's taken me so long to save up for this build, I may slightly upgrade that GPU but I love the ports (all three flavours!) on this GT 440!!!! But thta 128-bit is a good observation.

On the other hand, someone with the GT 440 did reviews and posted benchmarks of many major games and it seems to be a great gpu card.

Also all those other suggestions...can't really be bothered. Am on extremely tight financial distribution for this build. I still may likely get this gpu but may look for one similar that has 256+.

Also, thanks for clarifying the am3 thing. I am getting a bulldozer chip and my mobo (that I sitll have yet to acquire) is am3+ which means it will be compatible. great thanks!

johntkucz said:

Also, this GPU

Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GV-N440D3-1GI GeForce GT 440 (Fermi) 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card

is what I was considering (mainly because of all three types of display ports) and low price. How will that hold up with games/moderate graphics processing (GIMP) and whatnot. I am pretty certain it will function and it looks very decent and great, just concerned b/c of low price compared to other gpus.

I would suggest a Radeon HD 6850 instead of GF 440, it's 256 bit and DDR5.