Help upgrading my mediabox

[parge]

Hi guys

I have been travelling for 3 years, so I have come home to find my computers which weren't exactly state of the art at the time I left, looking like they should be in a museum (or, perhaps, junkyard would be more befitting).

Anyhow, my mediabox is ok for playing DivX, but I would like it to be able to handle HD content as well

At the moment, its

Semprom 2800+ 64 (Socket 754 I think)
1Gb PC3200 RAM
320gb HD (easily replaced with a 1.5Tb one)
Radeon 9250 AGP Low profile (oh yeah speed demon - but passively cooled)
Some random MSI mobo - which is probably fine.

Anyhow, as I said, I would like it to be able to handle HD, and was wondering what cheap upgrades I could make (ebay ebay ebay) to achieve this. I probably need to replace the graphics card anyway, because it only has VGA and not DVI out. Is there a graphics card that would do the HD acceleration instead of the processor handling all the hard work.

I was looking at the Radeon 3450 -
++ low profile, has DVI, is AGP
- - not passively cooled

Also, whats my best bet for upgrading the CPU, I need something that doesn't run too hot if at all possible.

Please help my mediabox achieve his High Definition destiny!!

Thanks!

 

[IlllI]

there comes a point when its not really worth it to sink more money into such an old system.

 

[Zap]

Upgrading an older system always makes for some tough choices. Because your system is on the "wrong" side of the AGP/PCIe divide, I would suggest you just upgrade the whole thing. For a media PC, it isn't as expensive as you think.

If your TV has a VGA, DVI or HDMI input, start with a GeForce 8000 series chipset (for AMD) or GeForce 9000 series chipset (For Intel) and use the onboard video. If not, then pick a cheaper motherboard and buy a cheap PCIe video card from a recent generation, such as GeForce 9000 series or Radeon 4000 series.

To go along with the new platform, buy a cheap dual core CPU, which start around $50. No need to spend more than around $80 for a CPU. Toss in 2GB DDR2 RAM for around $25 (less after rebate). Voila!