Machine probably fried, help me build a new one

[Mikey52]

Well, I came home today, switched on my machine and noticed the only thing running inside the machine were the case fans. The heatsink fan and the video card fan werent moving, I cant tell if the harddrives are spinning (I hope they are!). I assume that the system got hit by some kind of power surge (even though it is running through a surge protector...). At the moment I cant tell what's fried and what's not so let's assume that I need to build a new system.

My current system is an Athlon 1.33 Ghz, Abit KD7 mobo, 1 GB of PC3200 which I *hope* is okay, a 128 MB GF3 Ti200, and a 400W PSU.

One of the few things I can tell you I will be doing with my machine is playing HL2 (if it ever comes out), so I would like to make a system that can run the game without any problems.

Basically, I would like advice on a good processor/motherboard/video card combo as I have not been keeping up with what's the latest and greatest. I would like to keep price reasonable but I dont want to have to upgrade again any time soon. I was hoping to delay this upgrade until HL2 came out but I dont think I have a choice at the moment.

Also, if anyone has any suggestions on my current predicament, it would be appreciated. The motherboard lights are on and the PC turns on (both indicating that the mobo is 'okay'). The video card fan doesnt spin and I get no video but the lights on it come on. It's very confusing.

Thanks.

 

[QTPie]

Read this, best price/performance is the combo of Barton 2,500.
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=27&threadid=1267249

 

[1sikbITCH]

One very important thing to consider.

If your mobo is fried, and possibly some other parts, it could very well have been your power supply that fried them.

If and when you rebuild, make damn sure your PSU wasn't the culprit, or what I would do (since I'm a noob), is play it safe and replace the PS.

 

[Mikey52]

Well, that's a good point *but* I am 98% sure the machine was off when it got toasted. I turn it off every night and Im pretty certain it turned off normally last night. Im beginning to think maybe a capacitor on the motherboard discharged all at once or something. I dont even know if that's possible but I cant see how nothing else seemed to be affected by this "surge." Also, the PSU seems to be turning on and running just fine, I would think if it were to blame then it would be smoking or spitting sparks or something.

Thanks for the link, I went ahead and purchased the P4 3.0C, Abit mobo, and the Radeon 9800Pro from newegg...damn I think my credit card is smoldering...