should i upgrade or buy new?

[kunar]

well, thats the big question.the system in question is in my living room and i use it daily to stream video (hulu mostly) it's an older (04-05ish?) dell dimension 4600, 2.8 GHz processor, 1gb ram etc etc.... but now here's my issue. when im trying to stream video at any decent quality (at 320p or over) at full screen, it get's pretty jumpy. as far as i can tell its the fault of the on board graphics. my connection speed tests show a consistent 2.5 mbps, and my ping test and traceroute both looked great. i have thought about buying a graphics card like this one and maybe some memory, but by the time i do that, ill have $100 or more in it. tigerdirect and newegg both have barebones kits for $2-300 all the time, quad core processors, 2-4 gig of memory, 500 gig or better hard drives, with case, power supply, mobo and all. im worried that the on board graphics on one of those wont be able to keep up any better than what i have now. what should i do?! put some cash into what i have or put a little more cash into something bigger and better??

 

[AllanD]

The problem with a dell 4600 is that it is a dinosaur.

I know, I've got one here it does what it's set up to do but I'm looking to replace it as it's the oldest computer in the house.

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[srteach]

The rig you describe is not designed for streaming video, regardless of the video card. However, onboard graphics generally re not up to the streaming / playing task either, especially for HD/bluray quality. Plan on a new video card, regardless of what you do.

IMHO, time to replace the computer and repurpose the old one. It is still useable, in another role.

 

[Psychopete]

I was sort of in the same boat, I just got a new computer. With those kits, typically you get a crappy case and PSU. The PSU in mine was bad out of the box and I bought a good 550w modular PSU. I went for the socket AM3 board, dual core, and 4gb DDR3 memory (xp). Or Intel, what ever you prefer. I figure there is room for upgrading, though. My card isn't that great either - GeForce 240 PCI-E with 1gb GDDR3. This thing hauls balls compared to my old single core computer, think it was a 1.4gz Athlon with a similar video card that you posted. If it has an AGP slot for video, it isn't worth putting money in at this point. I would offer you a 7300GT that I have in my parts bin, but I have no way of knowing if it works or not... But would be a lot cheaper if you'd want to mess with it.

 

[4.0B2]

replace...

mac... lol
j/k.

but yes replace.

 

[kunar]

i dont really want to sink the money into a new system, but then again i hate spending money on something obsolete. i only use this computer for streaming video, i have another tower i use for web browsing and such... i guess ill just keep looking and researching whats out there....

if i dont buy a kit, i might still put together something of my own. i think i can probably scrounge up an old atx case and at least a cd burner.... any hard drives ive got laying around will be ide, so i'll need a sata drive. any opinions on a good (cheap) mobo, processor and memory? its been a good 4 or 5 years since ive done much with computers so i dont know what works and whats "standard" anymore.

 

[Jason]

i dont really want to sink the money into a new system, but then again i hate spending money on something obsolete. i only use this computer for streaming video, i have another tower i use for web browsing and such... i guess ill just keep looking and researching whats out there....

if i dont buy a kit, i might still put together something of my own. i think i can probably scrounge up an old atx case and at least a cd burner.... any hard drives ive got laying around will be ide, so i'll need a sata drive. any opinions on a good (cheap) mobo, processor and memory? its been a good 4 or 5 years since ive done much with computers so i dont know what works and whats "standard" anymore.

Get an xbox 360. Stream away for cheap.

 

[kunar]

a buddy of mine from work (and fellow ranger driver) gave me an ATI radeon 9550 to play around with. as soon as i installed it, windows automatically figured out what it was and got the drivers working for it. i started watching a couple things on hulu and it didnt make any difference. i think i might be buying myself another system....