Okay folks,
My old AMD 2800+ PC (that was running a gig of ram, 3 PATA HD's on an NF7-M motherboard) died on me yesterday, during a repair of the northbridge motherboard fan.
In my infinite wisdom, I decided to try and cut through the plastic leg that held the fan to the motherboard (so I could just push it through). In the process, I think I may have scratched one of the traces around the hole in the pc (they are traced *incredibly* close to the hole)
Anyway, all I get now is a slow beeping from the bios on startup.
The PC is probably 4 or 5 years old now, the case is fine, the PSU is fine, the hard drives are fine.
What I need is a new motherboard, new processor, new RAM and if it's not embedded on the mobo, new graphics card.
My needs: Office, Cadsoft Eagle, Some 3d rendering from time to time (new monkey island game... maybe some 3D enclosure design)
My OS: I will continue to use the XP installation from my previous system.
My Budget: around $200, preferably less than that.
as I haven't build a new PC in a while (4 or 5 years) everything has moved forward - AGP no longer exists it seems, memory has jumped ahead etc.
Please suggest the lowest cost, half decent performance system. Atom processors are a no-no, so are celerons.
Cheers
/R
My old AMD 2800+ PC (that was running a gig of ram, 3 PATA HD's on an NF7-M motherboard) died on me yesterday, during a repair of the northbridge motherboard fan.
In my infinite wisdom, I decided to try and cut through the plastic leg that held the fan to the motherboard (so I could just push it through). In the process, I think I may have scratched one of the traces around the hole in the pc (they are traced *incredibly* close to the hole)
Anyway, all I get now is a slow beeping from the bios on startup.
The PC is probably 4 or 5 years old now, the case is fine, the PSU is fine, the hard drives are fine.
What I need is a new motherboard, new processor, new RAM and if it's not embedded on the mobo, new graphics card.
My needs: Office, Cadsoft Eagle, Some 3d rendering from time to time (new monkey island game... maybe some 3D enclosure design)
My OS: I will continue to use the XP installation from my previous system.
My Budget: around $200, preferably less than that.
as I haven't build a new PC in a while (4 or 5 years) everything has moved forward - AGP no longer exists it seems, memory has jumped ahead etc.
Please suggest the lowest cost, half decent performance system. Atom processors are a no-no, so are celerons.
Cheers
/R