I am looking to build a PC from scratch, and I know I must start off with a good Mobo, but which is the best for what I want to do, which is play games, and watch DVD's mainly and them to use the PC for ordinary things like email, internet, word, excel, etc. Also, main components to attach to the motherboard are the processor and graphics card, which of these are best with you recommended Mobo.
That's an extremely broad question. People are going to give you all different answers. You didn't specify what processor you want or anything. There's a much smaller choice of mobos for say, Athlon 64 than there are for Athlon XP. I've personally used: Abit, Gigabyte, MSI, Asus, Chaintech, and PC Chips. I loved all of them, great boards, except for the PC Chips, which was the biggest piece of crap I've ever owned. I honestly think I set that board on fire and pissed on it to put it out. Anyway, the best mobo just depends on what CPU you're going for. And the options you want. Onboard this and that, what chipset you want, etc...
I want something that will run certain games effectively as it is from my daughter. The games are the likes of The Sims, Simpsons Hit and Run, Scooby Doo etc which aren't hard to run I know. I haven't ever tried AMD, which makes me curious to try it, so AthlonXP or 64 would be a good option, Are they really that much slower than P4?? and how really can I compare speed, as I have a P4 CPU with a ASUS P4S533-E Mobo in my own PC, and I am not sure that I seen much difference with the Win98 PC I replaced it with. (Don't ask me what was in the 98 PC, I don't know, never looked) Anyway, whats the difference in Athlon XP and 64, I read good reviews about ABIT Mobo's and would like to go with them. The PC also needs to be able to run a DVD player effectively, and also to have a fairly good sound to it,even if its only two speakers, and not 5:1 surround sound. Again which Mobo comes with a good onboard sound. The last thing I can think of right now is the price. I really want to build a PC thats good for what I have described, but I want to do it with a fairly small budget. The cash isn't totally restricted, but I wanna say that I built this PC for £xxx amount of pounds, if you know what I mean. Sorry, one more thing, I have a GeForce4 MX440 graphics card that I don't use, How good is this card? and can it be taken into consideration when I go to build?
The difference you have to understand about AMD and Intel is that just because an AMD chip's clock speed isn't as high as an Intel chip's, doesn't mean it's slower. Athlon XP's perform more per clock cycle than P4s so they can do the same job at a lower clock speed. This goes even further with Athlon 64 as it can run at even lower clock speeds and get the same job done. For example, my Athlon XP is a 2400+M. It's overclocked to 2.5GHz. At first glance, you may say that 2.5GHz isn't that fast as many cheaper P4s are that speed. The thing is, my Athlon XP is about the same speed as a P4 3.2GHz. Even further, an Athlon 64 at about 1.9GHz can handle my 2.5GHz Athlon XP, so that's saying something. As for a mobo, if you're going with socket A (Athlon, Athlon XP, Duron) and you like A-bit, go with my board. It's very popular and probably the best board I've ever owned. There may be one that better suites you though for cheaper, as this board has options that you probably wouldn't use. It does have onboard 6 channel surround sound though, via the soundstorm audio. Nforce 2 chipset, etc... It's around $80 or so on newegg.com, so that may be a bit more than you'd want to spend. I went browsing around and this isn't a bad deal. MSI makes some pretty good boards. http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=13-130-475&DEPA=1 You could grab a cheap Athlon XP and slap it in there... would be a pretty nice set up. Grab a cheap stick of 512MB PC 3200 and you'd still be under $200. I think they have 80GB or so WDs and Maxtors for around $60 or so on newegg.com Not sure though as I haven't looked in a while. Grab a descent case with a good PSU and you'll be in business. I'd say that the G4 MX 440 could handle most things your daughter will play. Albeit, I wasn't sure if you mean the first Sims, or The Sims 2. The Sims 2 can really put a beating on a system with 512MB ram or less. That system should be able to handle any of her games. Also, to cut back on the price you could always go with a 256MB stick of ram, or get a slower CPU, etc... Maybe even grab a Sempron although I wouldn't recommend that unless you really are on a tight budget as the Athlon XPs are better.
