Help me to choose a Mobo

[ximango]

That is my first post here, so if I make any mistake, please forgive me.
I will buy a new PC and they offered me the following: Pentium 4 2,4Ghz, 512Mb RAm DDR 333, FSB 533Mhz, with a GeForce 4 MX440, HD Samsung 40Gb 7200rpm, DVD-Rom and CD-RW Lg 52x24x52. The mobo is Intel d845gebv2 but I am thinking about a mobo Asus. Which model of Asus would you recommend? Or another manufacturer? I heard that recently Asus is not the best mobo manufacturer because a lot of people had problems with them. But it seems that most of the problems I saw is with AMD processors. I won't play games in this pc, but I will use programs such as Photoshop, Corel Draw and will use to watch some DVDs too. I would like to have a good mobo for a possible upgrade in the future of processor, memory... The base price for this mobo Intel is US$103, but I will have to pay more because I am in Brazil The price of the mobo may be around this value. Any suggestion is very welcome!
Thanks

Personally, I like Abit's Intel platforms. The IC7 and IS7 board variants have all received decent reviews I believe, and Abit is known for their ability to make stable and solid motherboards. The downside being that both are a little bit more expensive than the Asus board you're looking at as they have a newer chipset and probably a couple more onboard features.

Good luck in your hunting, and welcome to TechIMO.

-Whir

[Fisheagle]

Abit's IC7-G would be my suggestion. All of the reviews I have read have been gushing over this MB. Yeh! They are a bit more expensive but it is the foundation of your system. I would suggest compromising somewhere else rather than the MB.

May I also be so bold (and at the risk of a few flames) to suggest you check out the Matrox Parhelia video card. It is no good for gameing but for business apps and watching moveis and video it can't be beat. It can also run three monitors.

Whatever you decide, don't compromise on your MB or your VC. Take them to the max and go smaller, slower, fewer on something else, other than the CPU of course... that you should sell a limb for.

Good Luck

[ximango]

Thank you Whir and Fisheagle for the suggestion. Here in Brazil it's a little difficult to find a mobo Abit. These boards you recommended me are based on the chipset Intel 865PE and 875P. I am thinking about the Asus P4P800, based on the chipset 865PE, that is very similar to Abit IS7. As I noticed in the site of Intel, the difference between 875P and 865PE is the PAT and ECC. I read a review that says that PAT gives only 5% of acceleration and ECC is a characteristic more important in servers. The other features are identical. The difference in the price of models of mobo with these chipsets is not very big in comparison with the real gain in performance. I am thinking about P4P800 or Intel 865Perl. Are they good mobos? I know you prefer Abit, but I have to search for other options too.
Thank you for the great help!