Age old problem... My old computer needs a refurb. I have an old celeron 400 in ATX case with a 250watt power supply. I plan to install W98 on the machine. I need another networked office computer for Internet, email, MS Office applications. No gaming, overclocking, or fancy stuff. I have a new WD 80G hdd as the old one gave up a few weeks ago. If needed I can get a new case as they are cheap. I want to replace cpu/motherboard/ram for something better but I am not up on current options or good combinations. I am looking for currently available options that will offer the best bang for the least buck. I need currently available solutions as much of the online info and reviews are for old products or brand new things. The pile is large so I am hoping to get a few good workable options from which to select. For no particular reason, I'm leaning toward Pentium but I am open to an AMD solution although I don't know their products at all. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance, Doug in Texas

The options available are many, and most CPU/MB/RAM combinations are dependent on OS that will be used and how it will be used. Since you said that their will be no fancy stuff, such as gaming and overclocking, we can eliminate anything that is on the highend of the price scale. This leaves the OS as the determing factor as to what you need. If you will be using XP, than a mid-higher end system will be needed as XP is a resource hog. A good, reletivly cheap system for XP would consist of an AMD AthlonXP 2500, or a 2.5Ghz Intel Pentium 4, and at least 512MB of RAM. If you will be using 98, as you stated in your post, than you won't need much more speed than you already have. A cheap system for 98 would consist of an AMD AthlonXP 1500, or a 1.5Ghz Intel Pentium 4, and 256MB of RAM. Both of these systems would require a new power supply as any new MB has an extra 4pin square shaped power connector that older power supplies don't have. You will need a power supply with about 300 watts capacity. As for motherboards, I recommend an ASUS board, the A7V8X-X for an AMD board and the P4S8X-X for an Intel board. Both are comparable in features with a built-in ethernet LAN port and built-in audio. With either of these DDR RAM is used, and it is rather cheap right now.

If you want "The best bang for the least buck" Then AMD is your solution if its just 98se your going to run on it then all you need is about 256 ddr and a low end AMD Chip like a 2200+ and a cheap graphics card from the nvidia mx range, i run an Asrock K7s8xe and they are cheap now and very reliable. Ofcourse this setup is crap for games but as you said its just for office stuff maybe upgrade to 512 ram but 98se doesnt really need all that you can pick up cheapo cases for about £30 with a psu as your current psu isnt powerfull enough minimum of about 300-350 watt nowadays. anyway this is just my personal opinion for a very powerfull windows 98 system good luck!