choosing a motherboard

[kgb8705]

I have been saving up for a computer, and have adequate knowledge to build one. The only problem i have i choosing which processor to buy, athlon xp or pentium 4. At first i wanted to buy an athlon motherboard with the nforce 2 400 ultra chipset with an atholon xp 2500+, with a 333mhz bus. I planned on spending around 200$ for the mobo and processor combined. Then i read an article that said it is better to buy an Intel motherboard with the 875P chipset. The reason was that Intel was coming out with the pentium "prescott", which would be supported by this chipset. On the other hand, AMD is'nt planning to make an athlon past 3200+ because of the new AMD 64 processor coming out, which would have a totaly differnet platform. Compared to the athlon, any pentium 4 usually costs twice as much as an atholon, and the motherboards with the 875P chipset also cost more than atholn motherboards. Considering the other parts I will buy, (decent graphics card, decent ram, HD, DVD, CD-RW, Modem, Speakers, TV Card, Case) i cannot spent too much. My question is if i sould buy an expensive Intel platform that can be upgraded in the future, or buy a less expensive Athlon platform that will not have any upgrades. I am planning on running the newest games, such as Half Life 2, so i'll need a good system. For reference, today is September 8th, 2003.

Thanks.

[teststrips]

I'd go with an athlon xp/nforce2 cpu/mobo combo. The upgrade option SOUNDS like a selling point, but let me put another spin on it. You may be able to upgrade the CPU, but how soon would you do that? A year? Two years? What would you do with your old processor that you could no longer use? You can upgrade your CPU, but what about RAM? Would the new mobo also support new ram technologies two years from now?

I say go with a nforce2 motherboard by abit asus or epox and an XP 2700 or 2800.

[relativity]

I agree with teststrips, I am in the process of building my very first PC myself. There will always be a better mobo and cpu coming out, you can never really keep up with the jones' Just get what you are happy with and can afford. Then next year or year and a half by a new mobo.
MY stumbling block if you can believe it is the kind of box to buy. I am also on a budget, I just wanna make sure I get a box that will work with one of the nforce motherboards for an Athlon cpu. My problem is with the boxes connection plate. It seems that most motherboards have different placing of the plugs for usb, lan, etc, than what comes with the boxes. Is it hard to get the old plate out to install the one that comes with the motherboard?
I'm also very confused about the type of power supply to get. There are a lot of reasonable boxes that come with power supplies, but the customer reports are poor on the power supplies. I am worried that a box I get may not be able to fit a power supply bought seperately.
Any suggestions or help in the right direction greatly apreciated.