Looking for MOBO/CPU replacement recommendations.

[lishpy]

Seems I've been the victim of some bad storm karma and my server has died. The motherboard I was using was old, so I'm not too sad. Looking for some recommendations for a new motherboard and CPU.

 

This is what I've been using for the last four+ years or so, so really anything is going to seem like a huge upgrade.

 

ECS a740-GM-M motherboard v1.0

AMD Sempron LE-1250 CPU

1GB DDR2 RAM.

Centurion 590 Case

Corsair TX 650w PSU

 

My current needs are still the same: reliability, low power, and price. I'd like a motherboard that's not going to give me any trouble, low power, and affordable. All my server does is provide my movies/tv shows/music for Plex. My HTPC does the rest and does all of the transcoding/downloading.

 

Since this setup lasted me about 4 years, I'd like this one to last that long too. My only request is the more SATA ports the better. I currently have 6 drives and would love to have at least 8 SATA connections.

 

AMD/Intel don't really matter to me, just price. I'd rather go with the cheaper option between the two. Just looking for long term here and something I can easily transfer my current unRAID system into.

 

Any suggestions? Been a really long time since I've looked at hardware. I do also live about 5 minutes from a Microcenter, but a quick search on Newegg comparing shows me they don't have much in stock that's cheaper than Newegg.

 

EDIT: This is what I quickly picked out on Newegg:

 

Motherboard (picked because it has decent reviews and 8x SATA ports):

GIGABYTE GA-F2A85X-D3H FM2 AMD A85X - $76.49

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128577

 

CPU (picked because decently reviewed and fits the MoBo socket):

AMD A4-5300 Trinity 3.4GHz (3.6GHz Turbo) Socket FM2 65W Dual-Core - $54.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113283

 

Memory (cheap and good reviews)

G-SKILL 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 - $35.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231396

 

$167.47 with free two day shipping. Anyone have any suggestions on other parts or any reasons why this might be a bad choice?

 

[garycase]

Looks okay for an inexpensive setup that supports 8 drives without any add-on controllers .. AND has a couple PCIe slots with > 1 lane for those cards if you ever need them.

 

Not the setup I'd use (I prefer server grade hardware) ... but a lot less expensive.

 

Your case and PSU are fine for re-use ... so your list above is all you need to upgrade.  Note that the CPU you've selected has almost 4 times the "horsepower" of your old CPU -- so I suspect you'll be very pleased with the performance