Need a new MB, or build a new PC. Need suggestions

The system is a Dell XPS710 purchased 4/30/2007
Vista 32bit
Not sure on what type of motherboard
Seagate 250GB Barracuda 7200rpm SATA HDD
Creative Labs Sound Card Model No. SB0460
Hitachi-LG Data Storage DVD/CD RW Model: GSA-H31N
Currently a Nvidia EVGA 9800GTX+ 512mb Vid Card (came with a 8600gts)
Currently 2x2GB Kingston DDR2 PC5300, came with 2x1GB Hynix DDR2 PC5300
Intel Core Duo 2x 2.40 pcu
20" Dell Widescreen Monitor

Today my computer completely froze and i was getting a solid ping noise from the speakers. When i went to reboot the system turned on and the drives checked. The Vid card fan came on but the CPU fan turn on super high speed and stayed high, the system would not start up. I unplugged the power cord again and the same thing happened. Except this time the CPU fan was normal. Again the system did not start up, it will sit like this until i shut it off. I did some research and here is what i checked.

Took out the RAM and started the computer, i got no change at all, no beeping either. i was told this leads to a mb or cpu problem

I cleaned the RAM with an eraser and nothing changed, small trick someone suggested

I took the fan off the cpu and started the computer for 5 seconds, the cpu began to heat up as normal. i was told this means my cpu is fine.

So i'm lead to believe my motherboard is just broken.

Because its a dell system i doubt i can just buy a new retail motherboard and make it work. I'm not even sure if Dell themselves will sell me a new motherboard and frankly i'm completely tired of problems with this thing, i'll never buy another dell.

So with that in mind i was thinking about building a new computer. I know a guy who has built several and will help me. My main concern is that i want to keep Office. If i keep my current hard drive can i keep my current windows/office?

The computer will be used for school and games. I play CS and WoW. I want to be able to able to play wow on mostly max settings flawlessly, which this current system does until it died today.

For budget i'd like to stay at or below a grand after i completely upgrade this summer. I will keep my monitor and everything so the grand is just the computer itself. I'm expecting to pay ~200-300 for a new motherboard and processor if i can get away with just buying those at the moment. Not sure about AMD vs Intel?

What do you think i should do with this situation? Feel free to give me some build suggestion as well.

your best bet if the motherboard is bad (it likely is anytime I had a computer with those symptoms it ended up being a bad motherboard) is likely to salvage most of the parts from the dell (everything except the motherboard,case, and psu) Get a new motherboard (socket 775 supporting core2duo, intel P43 or P45 chipset recomended), a new case (dell cases have a propriatary front pannel connector that will not work with most retail boards and many of their cases use mATX formfactor which limits board options aswell, New power supply (dell tends to use cheap psus [the last dell I opened was an insperon 530 and it had the same piece of crap 300w bestec psu e-machines used to use] and it is not worth risking your new board to a shoddy psu), Also a new cpu cooler if you reuse your current CPU (again the dell ones tend to use proprietary mounts and/or ducting.)

Here are some quick recomendations:
Motherboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128372
$99(good board, good manufacture, decent expansion capibility)
(or if you want a few more features as well as future DDR3 support)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128364
$120 (I currently have this board in my primary desktop)
Case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119068
$50 (these are cheap, solid, and highly configurable)
PSU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703005
$100, $85 after rebate (this should handle any single video card rig fine)
CPU cooler:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835101026
$30 (this should keep the cpu nice and cool)

If dell actually sent you an OS disc with your system (It will say Dell on the disc and then something like "operateing system; already installed on your computer) you can use it to preform a repair install after the new motherboard is installed allowing you to keep your programs and files intact [you will need to reactivate windows due to the hardware change so make sure to peel the licence off the old dell tower and keep it handy when windows prompts.]) If you did not recieve a seperate os disc you will likely need to purchase a new copy of windows.

The whole build should run less than $300 (if you don't need a new copy of windows and recycle all other parts)

Your cpu is likely ok but if you want/need to replace it that will add another $160 or so for a core2duo (e8400) that is a little better than your current set up (the cheapest core2duo is $120) AMD cpu's are cheaper but are generally lower preformance than intel chips. And of course AMD cpu's use a different socket which requires a different motherboard than the ones I listed.


Almost forgot; did you try removing the expansion cards one by one (video and any PCI cards) sometimes a bad or poorly seated (loose connection) card can cause a computer to fail to boot.

Did you eliminate the power supply as a possible source of your problem.

And don't ever start a computer with the CPU heatsink removed, period.Why would take too long to type, so let's see if we can agree on, "because I said so".

And no, generally it wouldn't be possible to install software from your recovery discs, but were you to transfer the HDD to a new machine with all of the same components save for only the new mobo you might get lucky an M$ will allow you to reactivate Windows, and all your software will still be running off your original HDD. That worked for me with an "aftermarket" OEM copy of XP MCE, this as opposed to the OEM, OEM copy that is on your Dell recovery discs. I think that Dell will sell you an original Windows disc but I'm not sure. I'm guessing that Dell is using recovery discs, never owned one. This has been industry practice for quite some. In some cases software packaged with a particular brand of motherboard will install on any board by that maker, but not on another manufacturers board. If you have actual software discs such as the M$ office, a phone call would probably convince M$ to allow you to reactivate that. Failing that download "Open Office". It's free and will do pretty much all that M$ Office will save Powerpoint I think.