Would this be a worthwhile upgrade?

[Shawn]

Current Specs:
Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz w/ HT
ASRock P4V88 Motherboard
4x512MB DDR400 Ram
Sapphire Radeon X800GTO 256MB GDDR3 Video Card
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz
Hauppauge WinTV PVR-350
Avermedia A180
1x320GB Western Digital SATA Hard Drive
1x300GB Western Digital IDE Hard Drive
1x200GB Western Digital IDE Hard Drive
1x200GB Maxtor IDE Hard Drive
Lite-On 16x DVD+-RW
Windows Vista Home Premium

I am looking for a cheap upgrade to hold me for another 2 years. Here is what I've compiled on Newegg:

Intel Pentium D 915 Presler 2.8GHz - $107.00
ECS NFORCE 570 SLIT-A (V5.1) LGA 775 SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - $69.99 AR
Kingston 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) - $178.99
eVGA 256-P2-N550 -T2 GeForce 7600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - $99.99 AR

Would this be a worthwhile upgrade? I don't game, but as you can see I use my computer as a media center pc.

I am currently RMAing my Sapphire x800GTO for the second time back to newegg. The first time it would overheat and crash and this time it doesn't crash but there is artifacting in Media Center. Think that Newegg will allow me to get a store credit instead of another one? I bought it in October.

Right now I'm using my old Radeon 9600 Pro and my processor is reaching 100% when playing back HD content causing choppy playback. The playback is a lot smoother if I turn off Aero. I'm not sure if it's because the 9600 Pro is too slow or because the processor is too slow but I am seeing 100% CPU usage more and more lately and I feel like I am approaching the limits of my current setup.

So the question is, should I upgrade now, then upgrade to a Core 2 Duo in a couple of years when the prices go down? Or should I wait a little longer and just upgrade everything at once? The motherboard is a cheap one but it has everything that I want or may want in the future (2 IDE ports, 4 ram slots, digital coax and optical out, SLI, and Core 2 Duo support). Most of the other motherboard I have looked at only have 1 IDE or only 2 ram slots. 2 IDE slots are a must because I am not going to get rid of my hard drives. Also by buying 2x1GB sticks of ram I'll be able to upgrade to 4GB in the future.

I would be ebaying my current P4, mobo, ram and sound card so taking that into account it doesn't seem all that expensive.

 

[Ruptga]

Ehhh, I have a feeling you can get something better, like a 939 system, so you can put more money into your processor where you'll notice it. Anyway, I did a quick search but this was all I came up with.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications...m-details.asp?EdpNo=2717542&CatId=2430

Edit: yeah, coming from what you have, prettymuch anything will be a nice boost to your media center pc. Media encoding is about the only thing I know of that is currently multithreaded. Also, I don't think either AVIVO or (whatever that other GPU load-sharing thing is called) came out until the 6xxx and 0xxx series of cards, so actually that 800GTO will probably do much better for you if you can ever get one that works.

 

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: ADDAvenger
Ehhh, I have a feeling you can get something better, like a 939 system, so you can put more money into your processor where you'll notice it. Anyway, I did a quick search but this was all I came up with.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications...m-details.asp?EdpNo=2717542&CatId=2430

Edit: yeah, coming from what you have, prettymuch anything will be a nice boost to your media center pc. Media encoding is about the only thing I know of that is currently multithreaded. Also, I don't think either AVIVO or (whatever that other GPU load-sharing thing is called) came out until the 6xxx and 0xxx series of cards, so actually that 800GTO will probably do much better for you if you can ever get one that works.

Thanks for the link. Do you think the 2.8GHz 915 Presler would be faster than the 3.0GHz 830? The one from Tigerdirect is OEM so I would have to buy a HSF too.

 

[stevty2889]

Originally posted by: Shawn

Originally posted by: ADDAvenger
Ehhh, I have a feeling you can get something better, like a 939 system, so you can put more money into your processor where you'll notice it. Anyway, I did a quick search but this was all I came up with.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications...m-details.asp?EdpNo=2717542&CatId=2430

Edit: yeah, coming from what you have, prettymuch anything will be a nice boost to your media center pc. Media encoding is about the only thing I know of that is currently multithreaded. Also, I don't think either AVIVO or (whatever that other GPU load-sharing thing is called) came out until the 6xxx and 0xxx series of cards, so actually that 800GTO will probably do much better for you if you can ever get one that works.

Thanks for the link. Do you think the 2.8GHz 915 Presler would be faster than the 3.0GHz 830? The one from Tigerdirect is OEM so I would have to buy a HSF too.

Presler is just a die shrink of smithfield, so a 2.8ghz presler will be slower than a 3ghz smithfield(unless the super hot overheating pos smithfield is throttling..)

 

[hellokeith]

Just put $200 into a 7800GS or X1950 Pro. My AGP system is similar to yours except I have a better vid card, and it handles all HTPC stuff fine including 1080P HD playback.

 

[engiNURD]

No, wait for the Core2Duo E4300 to drop to $113 in a few months, or get the x1950Pro AGP (skip the 7800GS). Waiting for the C2D would be your best option since you want it to last at least 2 years. What's your budget?

 

[Shawn]

How much faster is a Core2Duo over a Pentium D? Would a 1.8GHz core2duo be faster than a 3ghz Pentium D?

Also, should I invest money in a HDCP video card instead? I'll probably upgrade to hddvd/bluray once the prices come down on the players.

 

[engiNURD]

http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2802&p=4
Since a Pentium D 3Ghz is slower than the Pentium EE 965 3.73Ghz, and the E6300 1.8Ghz performs on par with the Pentium EE 965 3.73Ghz at stock speeds, then I would say yes, the 1.8Ghz is faster than a 3Ghz Pentium D.

Invest in an HDCP compliant vidcard? Only if you have an HDCP compliant monitor/tv.

 

[lobbyone]

Originally posted by: Shawn
How much faster is a Core2Duo over a Pentium D? Would a 1.8GHz core2duo be faster than a 3ghz Pentium D?

Also, should I invest money in a HDCP video card instead? I'll probably upgrade to hddvd/bluray once the prices come down on the players.

In short...hell yeh!