upgrading of system

There is a gazillion sites for this out there. One that I like is www.pcmech.com

Hope that helps!!

I am a fan of Tom's Hardware
http://www.tomshardware.com

There are columns on everything. reviews and guides.

Have you ever done any hardware work on your computer before?  If not, you need to do this with a qualified person looking over your shoulder.  If you don't know anyone as a personal friend you would benefit greatly from calling your local clone shop and asking if one of their techs can come over (probably in his off hours) to help you through this.  It may cost you $50 but will save you a ton in trashed components, shipping, etc.
By the way, I second tomshardware.

Actually my P2 system is not working at all! I brought it to a shop and the repair man said that I need to get a new motherboard. Since I need to get a new m/b, I also have to get new RAM, graphics adapter, casing and processor. That comes out to be about $500SGD at least. I'm contemplating with the idea of buying a new one!

By the way, the symptoms of my P2 system is as follows. When switched on, the HDD does not revolves hence no spinning sound and the red light that normally flickers when there's HDD activity is not flickering. What's worse is that, there is nothing displayed on the monitor.

It would be a good experience for you to look over the shoulder of someone doing this or have that person there to supervise and advise while you do it.  You can get a bare bones system from www.tigerdirect.com
If you need a new case or just a mobo/cpu combo they have it.  I ordered a barebones system to replace my AT style P2/266 with an Athlon 1.3GHz with 256 megs of RAM for $350 (case, floppy, mobo, cpu video, memory).  I just did an upgrade of a friend's system and ended up with his P3/600 mobo/CPU/memory so I had to purchase a keyboard, case, and CDRom from Tiger to rebuild my kids' computer.  The cost on those three components was $75.  I could have doubled that and gotten a floppy, mobo, cpu, mouse added to it.

Now, to troubleshoot your system.
Does the case fan come one when you flip the power on?  Any signs of life?  Any beeps?

Is your system giving you any Beep Codes when you try to start it up? Based off your BIOS manufacturer, these should be able to indicate what the problem is that is causing your system not to boot.

Try Troubleshooting BIOS Beep Codes(http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/sys/beep/) for a listing of the beep codes, meanings, and possible solutions.

If there is a problem with the CPU or motherboard there will be no signs of life.  It is not worth the money to pay a computer shop to troubleshoot and repair this defective system and that is why they said you need a new motherboard.  I don't know where they plan to get a new motherboard for a P2, though, unless it is from their consignment stash.

If the motherboard were dead the hard drive should still spin.  I am suspicious of this diagnosis.  I wonder if the shop checked the power supply.  It may simply be that it needs replacing, not the motherboard.

If you plug in a hard drive by itself without a cable does it still spin?  I am believing not since it doesn't have a cpu to initiate the startup procedure.  I will go out to my shop and verify that one and be back with you in a few minutes.

Yep.  I guess so.  I plugged a hard drive alone into a power supply and it fired up.  It didn't do a whole lot but it did spin up.

Ya the shop guy did check the power supply and after using his power supply the same problems arose. The HDD still had no activity. This means that my power supply is working fine. For the beeps, not a single beep could be heard.

$500 bux?  wow...that is expensive.  Hmmm..what kind of a system is your old one....you may be able to get a replacement motherboard?  which may cost AT MOST 150 dollars....unless it is some funky board.  But then again you can probably get a Fry's Motherboard and CPU for cheap too.  They sometimes have good deals.  However not my first choice in shopping.

Go to www.pricewatch.com and select 'motherboards' under the topic 'cpu'.  Then pick 'Pentium II'.  You'll see that new motherboards are available starting at 28$US.

If you go that route you wont need to buy ram unless the ram is bad and you wont need to buy a new CPU unless the CPU is bad.

"$500 bux?  wow...that is expensive."

Wake up, wakeup.  A singapore dollar is 55 cents in US dollars.

ahhh.  Sorry didnt realise it was Singapore dollars.

I would try switching the power cable from a device known to work, such as a CD drive, to see if something may have happened to the connector currently attached to the hard drive.

You may also want to check the hard drive activity wires to make sure they are connected properly to the motherboard.

Here's another good site for components and bare bones systems, and they have incredible prices:
http://www.tcwo.com/