Old Spec to Media Hub?

wannabedamned · 21 Dec 2009 at 14:10

I have a slightly old machine. Opteron [email protected], 2gb RAM, Radeon X800 512mb graphics card

Now I'm looking to get some more life out of this system by using it as a media Hub. After playing various movies on it, I find Most things play nicely, but when I try and move to play certain H264 files, The quality can be too much for my old Spec, and I get a lot of juddering.

The media hub\PC is hooked up to a LG 32" screen that is 1080p capable btw

now looking at OCUK, There are a lot of graphics cards, with HD attached to them now, And my X800 does not. Am I under the impression that now cards handle processing instead of the CPU?

If so could you guys point me in the direction of a graphics card with HD processing, but also a spec similar to an X800 so i can still play some nice games, Im not looking for a machine that will play crysis. but I do still enjoy games like command and conquer 3, Oblivion.

reason I've posted this in general hardware instead of Graphics cards, is because im not 100% my sole problem is going to be my graphics card, Maybe i need a dual core too, which to be fair i cant afford so avoiding that would be great

Any help would be appreciated

wannabedamned · 21 Dec 2009 at 17:49

Hey guys. Im just gonna push this to the top once, as Im hoping to purchase a card before Xmas.

Redgie · 21 Dec 2009 at 19:07

A processor would probably be necessary too, as for the GFX, you don't need to worry about over-doing it because th ebest graphics will still play the games you listed.

Your best bet is to set out a budget, split it between the two parts and let us pick em

Audigex · 21 Dec 2009 at 19:27

You don't seem to specify a budget, but I'd get a HD4770/4850 if you can spare £70. If not, find a second hand 8800GT for about £30-50 for a similar effect :-)

Most of the processing can be offloaded to the GPU, so your opteron should be able to handle it well enough once the card's upgraded :-)

wannabedamned · 21 Dec 2009 at 20:31

Hey Guys, those graphic card look nice for the money.

Reason i wasnt fancying upgrading the CPU, is because i have an asrock 939 motherboard, and cant see any 939 processors out there being much better than my opteron 146 overclocked. And so no doubt a CPU upgrade would require new Ram, Mobo, etc etc. Which Im not really looking to do.

Aslong as the GPU can take some load off my CPU then great. Obviously if i get a card and the juddering is still there, I'll have to take the next step and look into maybe a processor replacement, but only sticking to 939 sockets.

I'd not really want to put more than £200 into this old machine. That's for the Graphics card and CPU if it's necassary to change it. And i'd preferably want to spend between £70-£130 on the graphics, and spend the remainder on the CPU but only if required, but would prefer not to