[Solved] Help - what am I not understanding?

Alright Gang,

At the bottom of this message is the list of parts that I ordered from Newegg, assembled, and I'm using the computer right now. It works great, it was fun, Newegg and Tom's were awesome for the entire process.

One problem - I didn't put enough research into Asus motherboard or graphics/monitors/GPU etc. I didn't think I needed a monitor because I have a smaller LCD TV with HDMI (and VGA) hookups.

I realized as I was installing the motherboard that there was no HDMI port... how exactly does this work then? With a good graphics setup, is an HDMI cord not necessary with the proper monitor?

I'm very confused and not sure what I should do.

I put on the BD-ROM in hopes of using this to connect to our larger LED TV... will that even work?

I want to use this computer mainly for Autocad, internet, and movies, not games.

Thanks in advance for any help.
Eric

CASE
Cooler Master HAF 912
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811119233

CPU
AMD A8-3870K Unlocked Llano 3.0GHz 100W APU with DirectX 11 Graphic AMD Radeon HD 6550D
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] bvmsnkyz9a

HDD
Crucial M4 CT064M4SSD2 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820148441

MOB
ASUS F1A75-M LE AMD A75 (Hudson D3) SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] n515h72y63

OPT
LG Black 12X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 4 MB Cache
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827136232

PSU
Rosewill CAPSTONE 550W 80 PLUS GOLD Certified, Single +12V Rail, SLI Ready, CrossFire Ready, Active
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817182068

RAM
G.SKILL Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820231460

WIFI
TP-LINK TL-WN722N Wireless Adapter
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6833704045

EDIT: No Eric, it would not work for HDMI, but for the DVI set up.

U would need to have a graphic card.

Also, the TV will be terrible for use as a LCD monitor.

Best would be TV+LCD monitor. Your eyes will hurt, after couple of hrs of reading, if u will use it from 2 feet away.

^+1 you have your answer right there

Hm, for some reason I was looking in to different mobo, without GPU.

Ah... discrete graphics card... the obvious option. At 1am last night I wasn't quite thinking of possible alternatives... I just wanted to post and get to bed.

That's great, thank you.

Yeah, the TV really is kinda cruddy for computer or Xbox use, but it's what I've got. May try to sell it on Craigslist and get an actual monitor, time will tell.

So, I was a little frustrated and tired last night, but when I powered on the unit this morning Windows had installed the driver for the APU and now my desktop looks "normal" and I am able to set my resolution to 1920x1080 instead of the 800x600 I had last night, so that helped me feel a LOT better.

Thanx for the vote : )