Hey A-N!
Like you, I'm a cheapa$$ scrounger. Have assembled lots of get-the-job-done systems from parts, and renovated/resurrected a couple dozen boxes that just need to web surf, do some word processing & music & photo viewing. I only stopped supporting Win2000 early this year when I finally junked my last Celeron box w/ 256 MB RAM. It still worked fine for most basics. I'm getting ready to make the leap to Win7 sometime in the next couple of months (it was a deliberate strategy to bypass Vista entirely, which I'm proud to say worked beautifully), but I will be supporting various WinXP home & pro boxes for at least another year or two.
You have 2GB DDR Ram, which seems to be running at 400 MHz.
You do not need more. Check out your BIOS and see if you can run the system at 533, it's good. Make sure that your chips are actually matched and running in
true dual channel, more important than single channel @533 MHz.
I run a WinXP pro system with 1 GB (2 x 512 MB) 400 MHz RAM, CAS Latency 2. It has
NEVER been the problem. I monitor mem use, and my system never exceeds 800 MB use, usually it cruises along at ~350-450, up to 550-600 with lots of apps going and long browser sessions. I've run 1080 encodes in *.mkv/*.mp4 and many more. Some work, some don't. Many don't.
My system runs lean (about 36-40 processes running, including antivirus and mpc-hc) when watching video. When they don't run, it's always because the CPU is maxing out.
Never RAM; even when videos are crashing all over, RAM use is usually under 600 MB and often under 500 (system without video running and otherwise all else off uses a base of ~240-280 MB w/ Trend Micro AV running, usually ~1%-4% CPU use).
So, tweak system and get it running at idle as lean as possible before you start installing & tweaking players & codecs. I can kill a couple of unnecessary process (java and win updates) & the system runs on 28 or 29 @ idle.
I'm running a Pentium 4 (Northwood) D1 core 2 (not core 2 duo) at 3 GHz. 200MHz (x 2 cores = 400 MHz) System Bus (FSB). It handles pretty much everything I've thrown at it @720 and lower. Can't recall a 720 vid that didn't run. About 1/3 of my 1080 attempts work, usually with smaller files, generally about max. 6 GB for ~100minute movie.
Intel motherboard D875PBZ.
Video card is PNY nVidia G73 [GeForce 7600 GS] on an AGP V3.0 x8 slot. 512 MB DDR RAM @270MHz, GPU @400MHz. This runs my DELL ST2210 monitor @1920 x 1080 @60 HZ vertical refresh in full 32-bit color. It's gorgeous & rock steady.
Check and make sure which AGP version you're running. Certainly, it helps if you're using a true 8x slot.
On this system, I've found the one bottleneck for HD video is the CPU, every single time.
I can tweak my player (pretty much always mpc-hc) and sometimes get a marginal movie to play .. but, it really depends on the encode. Some are better than others. Those with "less better" optimized encode and with more data to decode, the CPU hits 100% on both cores and you are out of joy.
If you're not aware of them, you can get pretty much all necessary system information with:
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http://rh-software.com/ (
SIV System Information Viewer)
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http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html (
Belarc Advisor )
And, of course, your manual for your motherboard & its BIOS.
I posted this because this is the best system I have right now (currently rebuilding 4 x Dell GX 260s that were donated to me .. destined as my linux sandboxes).
I consider my system adequate for most of what I'm viewing; I'm no videophile and can't advise on players/codecs ... I'm still learning those. But these hardware specs are "on the margin." I'd say it will be very difficult to get performance out of anything more than about 5%-10% weaker ... and I mean specifically the CPU. I think you're screwed with any single core.
As a side note, one reason I'm rebuilding the GX260s is I think it might be possible for them to run linux Mint as low-powered home cinema boxes. Still checking all specs and deciding if I need/want to put in graphics cards. These two seem my best bet to max these systems from available technology today:
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http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161318 (DDR3 memory)
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http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814139043 (DDR2 memory)
But, really, I need to determine the CPUs in these boxes & if it's possible to upgrade them ... I'm pretty sure they're 2.2 or 2.4 GHz P4 single cores. Each box has 1 GB (2 x 512 DDR) CAS Latency 2.5 RAM. If the slots are AGP 4x and I can't locate better processors (like 2.8 or 3.0 GHz), I don't have much faith. These cards are more interesting for the dual monitor support they offer, not because I think they'd tip the scales for HD video (they might in some cases) or because I expect to play high-end games. I'm still happy with Chessmaster, Arcanum, Age of Empires II and Fallout 2 ...
if I ever get free time
Anyway, I really won't put my time onto any systems that fall below these Dell GX260 specs, not even as linux servers. I've already turned a few down this year due to time constraints. You can't even find SATA 1.5 drives anymore ... you have to cripple SATA 3 drives to make those compatible (as I discovered for my main system, as described above). SATA 6 drives
can't be crippled enough to run on a 1.5 mobo. ,,,
and let us not
even discuss the absurd prices for an 80 or 160 GB PATA drive ...
Oh, yeah and about CoreAVC ... if you want to be so honest and honorable, you can always pick up a 'free' version long enough to evaluate it. If it works, go ahead and buy. If not, uninstall and sleep easy.
