somewhat OT: motherboard replacement

[burningclown@burningclown.com]

Hi -

Would appreciate advice on this topic, if anyone has a moment to offer it.

I've been happily running Debian for 2 years or so on a Dell Dimension XPS 
T700r. A bit over two weeks ago I suffered what I can only assume was a 
lightning strike at home while I was in Manhattan at work: came home to a fried 
DSL modem and what I thought was a fried NIC.

Now, however, it -appears- that more damage was done. I've tried two replacement 
NICs, in various slots, to no avail. The system can't 'see' em, even though 
they are very similar (same driver) to the original card. Have been told by a 
couple of people that it sounds as though the motherboard took a hit.

My question is, given that this isn't a bleeding edge machine (hardly) anyway, 
should I try to find a motherboard for it or just consider it a metal ottoman 
and look around for something else? I have very little hardware experience: I 
swapped out the video card on the fried box and have replaced a hard drive on my 
laptop & that's about it.

I've been looking at www.retrobox.com as I don't have a lot of green to spare.

Thanks,

Glenn

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