My computer at work is about 6 or 7 years old. And it was cheap when it was new. Lately, with some large projects, it has been crashing and, really, just dying on me. I've already had some capacitors go out on a previous motherboard. They replaced it with another one that was just as old. The problem is that we are due for a full department overhaul on computers in late 2013. So they are not willing to put any new computers on the budget. But I also have to work with Access databases and Excel files that are 15Mb or larger. The latest spreadsheet now crashes my computer as soon as I open it, with no other applications open. The project with this latest spreadsheet was actually due on July 31st, but I haven't been able to make any progress on it for the past 3 days. And IT still hasn't gotten around to the ticket I submitted (probably due to lack of resources).
I need some parts, and I need some advice about them. I'm looking for a cheap, dependable motherboard, processor, RAM, and mATX PSU. I've never seen a computer at work with AMD, so it's possible they only work with Intel. My hard drive is just as old as the rest of the PC, so the mobo will need an IDE port, too. Any advice or recommendations would help. I'll check out the hard drive as soon as I get to work, today. Hoping to keep the parts under $200.
Edit: Hard Drive is a Western Digital Caviar WD400BB-75JHC0