Confused on Chipsets

[SHUJeff]

A few months ago I was all ready to build my first system and I would keep up with this board every day. Then that phrase that everyone hates to hear hit me "BUDGET CUTS". The system that I was building before was AMD based, but now i'm leaning more towards a P4, either the 2.5 or 2.8..the 3 is too expensive for me. But it seems like there are so many Intel chipsets I don't know what's good for what or what I should be getting. It's basically going to be used for word, frontpage, internet, music and movies...ABSOLUTLY NOT interested in overclocking, I don't trust myself that much yet.

~Jeff

 

[AndyHui]

ANy i845PE chipset based motherboard will be fine for what you want.

 

[RU482]

What are you actually going to use this computer for?

What are your future expectations of this computer?

How much do you want to spend??

 

[tapir]

If you aren't going to be gaming on this rig, go for a DDR chipset like the 845PE, 845GE or SiS648. The -GE has integrated graphics which are also sufficient for standard use. Go with PC2700 memory as the cost is not too high above PC2100. Also save yourself some money and get a 2.4 or 2.53 processor since 2.8 and 3.06 are really high end and you won't notice a difference running different apps in windows, rather spend the money you save on a better motherboard or a sound card or something.