The motherboard on my Dell Dimension 2400 broke about 3 months ago. All I have left is the Celeron 2.6ghz processor. I am having trouble finding a compatible motherboard. I know celeron 2.60 will work with the "Optiplex GX260". But the thing is I know Dells are usually set up to not work if you dont have a certain part, for example the heatsink or heatsink tray. Can someone please help me pick one out?

Explain how you determined the motherboard "broke". Although it does happen, there are other components that are much more likely to fail...the power supply for example.

"But the thing is I know Dells are usually set up to not work if you dont have a certain part, for example the heatsink or heatsink tray". You are correct that your Dell needs certain replacement parts in order to work. The key replacement part IS the motherboard. Without a close match to the original one your copy of WinXP will refuse to run at all. A celeron 2.6 is not worth enough to build a computer around it. The link below is an example of what it may be worth. http://www.overstock.com/Electronic... Dell motherboards will be expensive. As jam stated above you need to try and determine what part, if any, is defective. Post details of what is happening.

The motherboard didnt break I drilled a hole through it accidentally. I lied about not having the parts. I checked today and I still have the heatsink and its cradle and the screws for it. I have the 80gb hard drive, and the power supply. I have my own copy of windows xp here so couldnt I reinstall windows or can you not reinstall XP on a dell? What I'm worried about is buying a compatible motherboard off of ebay for $20 and my heatsink and the heatsink cradle end up not being compatible. I remember on the dimension 2400 if you didnt have the heatsink cradle screwed in it would flash orange and not boot.