Even though I see the appeal of keeping working parts, you're getting on for a major rebuild. Last time I checked, AGP graphics cards had quite a price hike over their PCI-E equivalents. I would check the 2nd hand value of your existing card, as there are probably better options if you don't need AGP (that board has no PCI-E x1 slots, and you couldn't use SLI or Crossfire for example).
You can plug your existing hard drive into any PC with the appropriate SATA or IDE port. They will usually be able to read it (just make sure it's not the boot drive), although a few programs like Norton Goback could make it effectively unreadable.
Thanks for the guidance, I will attempt to salvage what I can from my PC and see if fresh software will solve the issue. However, I can't help but think (from sources I've read on the internet) that this won't neccesarily solve the problem, and even if it does it'll only be a temporary messure.
If I throw out there a few details about my circumstances it might shed some light on where I'm coming from. At the moment I'm on a gap year doing a mix of work and volunteering both at home and overseas. In October, I'll be off to University. I'm also not a huge gamer any more, in fact, it's been a few months since I've let a game slip into my DVD drive.
So basically, I'm really looking at remaking what I have into a swift but most importantly reliable PC for as little as possible to tie me over till October, when I can then indulge in a moderately expensive laptop (perhaps even a full HD compatible one
) and share my pc use between that and my home pc, depending on where I am.
Based on that, I think the idea of the AS Rock and a new CPU and ram will be the best bet, and with a bit of luck I won't have to upgrade it again for 4/5 years (long course).
I think the only question left is the CPU - am I going to be able to get more power from clocking the black eddition X2 or the lowest clock Phenom X3?
A big thank you for your help though, I'd have never found these options otherwise.
