New Box ASUS board, AMD CPU

Those of you who know me, know I am not a gamer, videophile, or graphics editor using anything beyond paint shop pro 5.0 or Gimp. I do periodically view and manipulate .dwg/.dxf (autocad) and .sdasm/.slddrw (solid works) images My use will be primarily "office" (word, excel, QuickBooks, email, general browsing, and forum work) I occasionally work on brochure and product promotion display pages that include editing of color photo pictures and technical line drawings. I frequently have 3 or more instances of browser open with several tabs each, plus email, plus QuickBooks, plus SolidWorks viewer. I run with two 22" display monitors. I've never had a machine more powerful than a single-core P4, with 2gb RAM, geForce 9500, and 32bit OS I hope to run Windows 7 Business 64bit with this new machine. I had hoped to stay under $600 for this build, but already am at about $650 without an operating system. (i'll use existing LCD, keyboard, mouse, etc.) I've probably gone "hog-wild" (for me ) with my appetite, because I am truly tired of this and other "slow" machines that I've been stuck with. For instance, I doubt my software use will ever demand quad core, but hope to have a brisk running machine that will handle my needs over the next few years. My seven year old business machine is failing, and business offers me opportunity to consider a new build. Here's what I've looked at so far. Comments? ASUS M4A785-M AMD 785G MB AMD X4 9850 CPU Cooler Master Hyper N520 CPU Cooler Crucial 2048MB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz (total 8 gigs) XFX HD465XZDF2 Radeon HD 4650 Video Card - 1024MB DDR2, PCI Express 2.0,(2) Dual-Link DVI Asus DRW-24B1ST 24X Internal DVD Burner Ultra X4 600-Watt Modular Power Supply - 135mm Fan, ATX COOLER MASTER RC-692-KKN2 CM690 II Advanced Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Not sure if you noticed, but you're board has on-board video, so you could get the card at a later date to make it more affordable, but for that sort of money I think it can be bettered, but I'm not saying you're choices are bad, but here is something to consider:'
ASUS M4A88T-M/USB3 AM3 AMD 880G HDMI USB 3.0 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard (again on-board video)
AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Thuban 2.8GHz
CORSAIR XMS3 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
Case & PSU Combo Deal
LG DVD Burner - Black SATA Model GH24LS50 LightScribe Support

Total $664.94, pretty much leaves you where you are now, but with a much better system, more so as like me, you only upgrade when it's needed, so getting the best you can means it will last that much longer.

Now I did notice something VERY interesting, and it may be a great choice, I don't like store bought systems personally, they always cut corners somewhere, but when budget is tight they can often be a way to get something better as it comes complete, now the following system is a re-certified one, so has limited warranty, but that said it comes complete with OS, down side is it's only Vista, bright side is you could just get Windows 7 later on when money allows, I also have a vague recollection of an upgrade option in the OS, but couldn't swear to it, but on paper this is miles above all these other choices, for less money in a way.
ASUS Essentio CG5290-BP007 Intel Core i7 920(2.66GHz) 9GB DDR3 1TB HDD Capacity NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 $689.99

get the one in 8210's last link, you won't regret it, i think.

I found this from TigerDirect
511.99 + shipping
Has onboard analog and digital output for video.

Thanks people. The "company" has stipulated a condition that I must select AMD processor. @8210guy - Your selection is certainly more attractive than what I assembled. Thank you. I'm still looking, but would probably be happy with that build. Additional Question: I'm reading up on "Select Affinity", as a means to take advantage of multiple cores. Apart from the occasional use of AutoCad/SolidWorks, my work will primarily utilize Word, Excel, Browser, QuickBooks, and Email It seems unlikely therefore that any of my software will be optimized to utilize multi-core. But since in practice I tend to have quite a few Windows open at the same time (Office, 2+browsers(with tabs) email, and QuickBooks) I will explore the ability to assign affinity perhaps for Quickbooks to one core, email to another core, etc. Anybody have experience with that? I'll almost certainly be using Windows 7 Business OS.

The "company" has stipulated a condition that I must select AMD processor.

Tell them they are mad then, AMD are good solid work horses, BUT, Intel have regained the performance lead with the Dual Core upward boards, the days where AMD had the edge have gone, for the time being anyway, the last link I gave would walk all over the other suggestions, I know AMD are cheaper, and that may be a large part of what they are after saying AMD, but for the price difference above it would be insane not to get the i7 set up, but if you're hands are tied what can you do, one benefit from the build I suggested is that the board comes with USB3, so as peripherals become more affordable, you are ready to take advantage of them, hope you get the build you want.

AMD Tigerdirect HERE
You will need to purchase the cpu fan though.
507.99 + shipping.

for what your doing doug i really don't think you'll need to use affinity to assign any cores to any program, in fact it might even slow down the overall performance of the machine by tying up a core and waisting cpu cycles when assigning a core just to the e-mail program, etc. about the only time i know of, where it is good to use affinity, is when folding both smp client and 2 gpu clients, to make sure each gpu client gets enough cpu cycles to keep them fully working, people use affinity to assign a dedicated core to each gpu client.

AMD Tigerdirect HERE
You will need to purchase the cpu fan though.
507.99 + shipping.

TBH that board is too low spec, it's also out of stock currently, but the spec would be no good to Doug, 4 Sata ports, means drives are very limited, more so with Sata optical drives, so adding further drives over time could be an issue, and only 2 ram slots, that means to get the ram he needs it would cost a lot more, as he would need 2x4gig sticks, don't get me wrong, good for what it is, but Doug is a but like me, and he will want this too last as long as possible before upgrading again, that rig would seriously affect his ability to do that.