**Hello Acadia, Sorry to hear about the laptop.  The only advice i can give is just to stay away from Dell...lol, They have made alot of good stuff but alot of Crap aswell.  If you are planning on getting your Motherboard replaced and are happy to keep the Dell then go for it. They seem to be very Intel happy so try and get a PM chipset of you can and not a P4 chip. P4 in a laptop get's HOT!   PM does not get as hot and has a better battery life.  Last thing you want is added heat to your render's...lol, Check around Ebay for moutherboards you might be able to pick a new one up for less than retail and just had a PC tech put it in for you.

Well i hope that is of some help to you., Best of luck with it :)

Live Well.
**