I have a Sony VAIO that was recently struck by lighting. I have been wanting to upgrade the motherboard, CPU, ram, graphic card, and power supply. My basic question is the motherboard. I need one that will fit the micro ATX or mATX form factor. I want a motherboard for gaming. What should I get to replace the old intel board.

"What should I get to replace the old intel board" Start with a new case. "If my answers frighten you then you should cease asking scary questions" - Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) in Pulp Fiction

I new case? I am guessing they don't make a mATX motherboard for gaming of close to it.

"I am guessing they don't make a mATX motherboard for gaming of close to it" No, that's not it...there's plenty of good mATX boards out there. But why bother keeping just the case? Have you done any troubleshooting to see which components are bad? It may simply be a blown power supply. "If my answers frighten you then you should cease asking scary questions" - Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) in Pulp Fiction

I am pretty sure its the power supply, yet I don't know if the motherboard is good enough to play rFactor, Call of Duty 4, Microsoft Flight SIm, and many other. I heard a stock motherboard would slow down the rate which the CPU, Ram and everything else communicate with. I can't find this Intel motherboard anywhere. I don't know which Intel socket it is or how big a processor it can take. I don't want to go out and buy a processor and find out it won't work with the board and then won't work with a another mATX board.

if the pc had a power surge, it may have just fried the PSU but it seems likely that IF that happened, the motherboard was damaged too. if you are already upgrading mobo, cpu, ram, vid card, and psu, you might as well spring for a new enclosure as well. Especially since if you drop that "mATX" requirement, you open up plenty more options for all other components. A gaming machine should not be bound by the limitation of size. you don't want to discover that your sexy expensive graphics card doesn't fit in your new case, or it fits so tight that no air can flow over your warm, expensive components... i thought vaios were just laptops? can you buy a sony vaio desktop as well?

Ya, the computer had a power surge protector from geek squad and it is fried. I night go ahead and just buy a new tower. I will just have to save up more money to go the distance. And yes, Sony has a VAIO desktop. It was in a tower until Sony has put them into a all in one computer with built in screen.