Beg, Borrow, Steal... Well not so much borrow or steal.

[bondiablo]

I'm trying to put together a tower for a friend who can't afford to buy a new system right now. She currently has an 8 year old Dell 4300 that's starting to die on her so just about anything would be an upgrade. I already have most of the parts including a socket 478 800MHz FSB 2.4GHz P4 and (2) 256MB sticks of 184 pin DDR 400 RAM but I need a motherboard. Anyone have a board they want to give away or sell cheap? I don't have a lot of money to spend on this project myself. An 865PE board would be ideal. I have a video card but it's pretty crappy so if anyone has a decent AGP card they wouldn't mind giving up that would help too. Thanks.

Any suggestions where else I might find an 865pe board for a reasonable price? I checked ebay but the prices there seem kind of crazy.

[sweeper2]

try Anandtech.com

go to their for sale forum.. i found a whole system (socket 478) for 100$

sorry i can't help you with the MB ... but that is what i am using right now...

the only thing i have is a Radeon 7200 64mb 4X agp card ... not sure what card you have at the moment.. but it's probably better then the 7200 ...

[bondiablo]

Thanks, I'll try over there.

[zepper]

I don't know if you've tried iOffer: A place to buy, sell & trade before or your local craigslist classifieds: jobs, housing, personals, for sale, services, community, events, forums, but you may turn up something. I don't mess with Intel and my "spare" vid card is even older than the one mentioned above, sorry.

.bh.

[KarmaKiller]

I think zepper hit the nail on the head. Craigslist is the way to go. There are always people giving away older hardware here. Most of the time, the only thing you'll have to do is send a email or 2, then go pick it up somewhere.

[bondiablo]

Gave in and got a board on ebay for a little over $40 shipped, not too bad, a lot less than what some of them were selling. Craigslist and iOffer didn't seem to have anything. Could still use a decent video card though. Was thinking something in the 6600gt, 7600gs or 6800gt range. Would like to spend under $30 including shipping.

[buschman31]

hey i just found a msi k8n neo2 like new in the box for $25 locally craigslist. trying to buy a msi kv8 w/ a 3800+ and zalmann fan for $20. but its been untested since his friend gave it to him. for $20 i'll take a chance on it. u can find some good stuff on craigslist. but sometimes people r getting outrageous on the prices. swapped a 160gb ext nas drive thought i bought for $20 for a nikon 8008 w/ 35-70 len and sb24 flash. just have to know u r looking and the price u r willing to pay.

[jamoctopus]

Try Ebay or Amazon or tigerdirect
They usually have some solid deals