New motherboard or not??

Forgive my ignorance. Dell support told me I need a new motherboard for a Dimension 4600, given to me by a relative, that I was planning to give to my 8 1/2 year old daughter to surf webkinz etc. Do I have to buy one from them or can I buy a different one that would plug right in? OR:

Seeing as I have a 4600 of my own, would it be more cost effective to buy a new computer for myself (with no monitor, keyboard, mouse, printer or anything), give the good Dell to my daughter, and junk the bad Dell, or should I keep my good Dell and fix the bad one for them?

The Dell is adequate for us right now and money is the main factor. I have no idea what a new motherboard costs compared to just a computer (without the monitor, mouse, printer and keyboard, which we don't need).

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

First off, replacing a motherboard is not just a question of removing the old one and having the new one "plug right in". Chances are, Windows would not boot and you'd need to perform a repair installation at the very least. The main plus of getting the motherboard from Dell would be that it would "plug right in". It will cost more than any other board would, but it will plug-and-play, or "plug right in" and everything should be fine. If you choose to not get the board from Dell, you'd need to repair Windows, install drivers, make sure your CPU and RAM are compatible, and make sure that the Dell case has a standard mATX (or ATX) form factor. Some Dells are set up 'backward' from a standard case; a standard ATX or mATX case opens on the left side and the motherboard mounts on the right side (if you look at the case from the front). On the backward Dells, the case opens on the right and the board is mounted on the left and the only way a replacement board would fit would be to buy one for that exact model. Some Dell motherboards have proprietary power connectors so you'd also have to be sure that the power supply in the Dell case has a standard power connector. However, you can usually find Dell motherboards for any model on EBay for alot less than buying directly from Dell. They generally won't have as long of a warranty, and may be used or refurbed, but new ones are usually available also. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to steer you away from buying a non-Dell motherboard with scare tactics. I'm just being honest and informing you of what you need to know. Nothing's worse than buying a motherboard and realizing it won't install, or it does install and you're all proud and happy and you power up, and it starts to load Windows and you're beaming with pride, a big grin on your face and a warm feeling in your belly, and then a blue screen error, Windows crashes, and the PC reboots. If you have some PC experience and you've installed hardware and operating systems and drivers, then installing a new board is no big deal. Otherwise, it is not something I would recommend that a novice PC owner jump into uninformed.

 

Windows wasn't booting before this anyway. I was getting the fatal system error c000021a with a status code of 0xc0000135. This Dell opens on the left and the motherboard is on the right. Also, I would probably have help installing the board. I will investigate costs of the boards vs buying just a desktop.

 

Another option you might consider is to buy an older (cheap) computer tower for your daughter. This way you could still use the keyboard/monitor/mouse you already have.
On eBay they can go very cheap.

 

Did some checking and found this:

This would indicate to me that a simple repair install of Windows might fix your problem.