Can I upgrade this system?

[imported_nicros]

Hi,

This is my current media center system:
Shuttle XPC SN95G5 nForce3 chipset v2.0 motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ processor
2GB DDR400 memory
Sapphire ATI X800 Pro video card w/256MB memory
Liteon Dual-Layer DVD Burner
Seagate 300GB SATA harddrive 7200rpm 8MB cache

I was trying to play a HD blue-ray ripped movie that was 23 Gigs, and basically couldnt do it. Thing stuttered a lot and was pretty much unplayable.

What is the source of this error? The cpu? Graphics card? Overall system or mobo limits?

I can buy a AMD 4000 for $40 on newegg, and a 512M 7600GT for 100. So for about $150 I could upgrade this machine.

What do people think, would this fix my playback issues or is it kind of hopeless and I would be better off upgrading to a new shuttle (or something similar)?

Would love to hear thoughts!

 

[ther00kie16]

weird... i can play 1080p with my 9800pro. also, do you care about gaming performance at all?
current GPUs can do all the hardware acceleration you need so just get a current video card.
7600gt for $100 is a terrible deal and Athlon 64 4000 is not much of an upgrade since you can overclock your current CPU to that speed fairly easily.
Do you have AGP or PCIe? For PCIe, get a ATI 3450 for $30 (after rebate). For AGP, you'll be limited to ATI 2400/2600/3650/3850.
Anything lower than 8500gt or 2400 won't have full hardware acceleration, which is bad for you because you have a weak CPU.
If you want some gaming performance, you could try a 8600gt for $50 after rebate, 8800gs for $80 after rebate, 3650/2600xt for $90 or 3850.
as always, newegg is a good place to start.

 

[imported_nicros]

Hi, thanks for the response.

I have AGP only unfortunately. Which is the best graphics card (bang for buck is important as well) I can put in this system? The ATI 3850?

I dont use it for gaming at all, mostly because the games I play (Crysis, BioShock, etc) require too much juice- I have a very nice desktop to run these.

I am also wondering if the stuttering is from the cpu getting too loaded or the gpu or the agp pipe. I dont know much about this so thats why Im trying to figure out where the bottleneck is and upgrade that part or parts.

Would upgrading to the ATI 3850 and this processor (Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4800+ 2.5GHz) help I wonder?

 

[IlllI]

Originally posted by: nicros

Would upgrading to the ATI 3850 and this processor (Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4800+ 2.5GHz) help I wonder?

last i checked those agp 3850s were going close to $200.. so it might not be worth it. once you get past a certain price point, you might as well just go and buy a new system

 

[imported_nicros]

There are a couple on newegg for around $140 after rebates. But I agree, maybe not worth it.

But what about a lesser card? The 3650? Theres on there for $90.

 

[corkyg]

"I was trying to play a HD blue-ray ripped movie that was 23 Gigs, and basically couldnt do it. Thing stuttered a lot and was pretty much unplayable."


Has anyone been able to play that "ripped" movie on any machine?

 

[imported_nicros]

First thing Im going to try tonight

 

[ther00kie16]

dual core will definitely help. in fact the dual core can probably play HD fine. if you aren't gaming, you don't need the 3850, nor the 3650.
just get a 2400 for ~$40. if you want a little juice, get the 2600xt, which is as good as a 3650.

 

[imported_nicros]

Well, tried it on my desktop machine last night, playback is just fine. So it looks like the little shuttle just cant hang with the HD.

I think I can upgrade to the 4800 core 2 and a 2600 for pretty cheap, hope that helps!