Arch Linux

M177ER

Member

Registered: 2008-06-15

Posts: 148

Old computer worth upgrading?

I have an older computer that is collecting dust and I am wondering if it is worth putting any money into. It would be a hobby machine running Arch (if the Athlon XP is equivalent to i686) for websurfing and used as a DVD player hooked to a TV if it can handle it.

The specs are:

Motherboard: L7VMM2 (micro-ATX) | 100/133MHz front side | VIA KM 266 chipset
CPU: AMD Athlon XP1700+ 1.47 GHz/266
RAM: I only have 512MB but it supports DDR up to 2GB of 200/266MHz DDR SDRAM
GPU: Integrated AGP 4x graphics controller. It also incorporates the S3 Graphics' 128-bit ProSavage8™ graphics accelerator. There are three 32-bit PCI slots and an AGP 4x slot

I would be looking to upgrade the GPU and RAM. Is it worth spending a few hundred dollars or I am going to be disappointed with the performance?

Last edited by M177ER (2009-01-28 06:31:30)

Denacke

Member

Registered: 2008-04-09

Posts: 106

Re: Old computer worth upgrading?

Your specs are actually already overkill for surfing and watching dvds!

You do have to see if your integrated graphics card has a TV-Out, otherwise you do need a different graphics card that does.

M177ER

Member

Registered: 2008-06-15

Posts: 148

Re: Old computer worth upgrading?

Thanks.

It has a VGA out (max resolution of 1024x768 IIRC) and the TV has a VGA connection . The TV is a 32" widescreen (720p) - I'm not sure how that is going to look.

monovibe

Member

Registered: 2008-12-06

Posts: 9

Re: Old computer worth upgrading?

1024x768 is good enough for dvd playback already. Actually for pal SD (standard definition) playback it's just 720x576 (for ntsc 720x480), the vga out is more than enough (well at least in terms of resolution.    ).

.:B:.

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2006-11-26

Posts: 5,819

Website

Re: Old computer worth upgrading?

Might be worth it though to invest in a graphics card that has a HDMI out, although there won't be many VGA cards out there doing that. Alternatively, you could get a card with a DVI out, that would be good too. HDMI is just a bit easier because you could route audio & video over one interface, and you get by with a regular HDMI to HDMI connector, for the DVI solution you need a DVI to HDMI (d'uh ).

Technically HDMI is DVI-D + some DRM crap + audio, so you're not loosing quality if you pick an AGP card with a DVI interface, you just need a separate cable for the audio.

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skottish

Forum Fellow

From: Here

Registered: 2006-06-16

Posts: 7,942

Re: Old computer worth upgrading?

I know everyone is focused on DVD stuff right now, but that machine has nice specs. I had a 800MHz PIII, 512MB laptop before that ran great with Arch. It was very usable for everyday tasks. A 1.47GHz machine will make a nice system.