Integrated Video Opinons Please

Hello! I am trying to make a small upgrade to a friend's computer. They needed a better processor, they were using a sempron from the stone age, and upgraded to a phenom I. Their motherboard couldn't handle more than a single core, and so it too must be upgraded (ooops!). The budget is 100$, which must include at least 2 SATA and 1 IDE hookup, as well as 2 DDR2 slots. This is well within reason, however, I cannot seem to find many AM2+ boards that don't include integrated video cards. I imagine you could overide it by disabling it in the device manager, and use a seperate GPU, but I've never bought a CPU with integrated video before and have no idea.

Thanks in advanced for your guidance and comments

All boards with on-board video have an option to disable it, that's not a problem, though if the machine is that old the on-board video may be better than the card they have.


You'll have to look around for a board that suits your needs. I would stay away from ECS and I favor Biostar in that price range. I might lean toward Foxconn over Jetway. Since you're looking at AM2+ your choices are pretty limited ...

I'd go with http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157177

That's if you can't convince them to step up to DDR3 and an 8XX board

This board...

ASUS M4A785-M

Looks like you might be able to unlock a Phenom II X2 to a quad as well.