[dontfollowme]

I was a bit disheartened when my pc struggled to play the Outsider (HD video). I know my motherboard can handle a better processor but would changing this alone give me any perceivable gains?

Spec is:
Motherboard: 
   CPU Type   AMD Sempron, 1833 MHz (11 x 167) 2600+ 
   Motherboard Name   Abit NF7/NF7-M/NF7-S (5 PCI, 1 AGP, 3 DDR DIMM, Audio, LAN) 
   Motherboard Chipset   nVIDIA nForce2 IGP 
   System Memory   1280 MB (DDR SDRAM) 
   BIOS Type   Award (08/20/04) 
   Communication Port   Communications Port (COM1) 
   Communication Port   ECP Printer Port (LPT1) 
   
  Display: 
   Video Adapter   RADEON 7000 / RADEON VE Family (Microsoft Corporation) (64 MB) 


Thanks

[GCW]

Your processor is going to be an AM2 socket, or maybe socket 754.  So you'll be a bit limited to what processor you can get- I Think Sempron, Athlon 64 X2 and Phenom use Am2 (but older mobos may not support BIOS for Phenom).
As far as CPUs go, I'd currently stick with Intel, they are ahead at the moment in my opinion.


All that aside, improving your CPU will give some improvement in performance, although increasing your RAM will also help.  For watching Unc's little film, a decent video card would be useful too.

It depends how far you want to go.  Personally, I wouldn't spend the money on a CPU to fit that board, I'd save up and rebuild a better system.  but if you're swapping to an Intel based system you will likely need to change most things.......

[GCW]

Oh, and what's the budget you're looking at?

[unclesomebody]

From what I know about computers, I'd say that a CPU upgrade would certainly give you some noticeable difference. The fastest sempron you can get is the 3600+ (as far I know) and you can buy one for £15 here; http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/AMD-Sempron-XP-3600-2-0-GHz-SDA3600CN-Processor-CPU_W0QQitemZ290266708687QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item290266708687&_trkparms=72%3A1300%7C39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

Hardly breaking the bank. The video decoding issue is largely due to CPU rather than discrete graphics. In fact, I'm not sure that any video cards (bar the most expensive!) have anything on board to deal with decoding video streams. That's usually taken care of by the CPU, which is why a CPU upgrade would certainly help.

GCW is correct that a new computer would be an overall better upgrade, but then you're talking hundreds of pounds rather than £15 for a new CPU. I'd take a punt and try that new CPU. Put the old one on ebay too and so your total cost of upgrade will likely be under £10. Not bad!

It's possible you can get a better/faster CPU but I don't know enough about AMD's to offer any meaningful advice. As GCW says, Intel are now the real beasts.

[GCW]

Shit, if you can get the 3600 that cheap, then go for it.

Build yourself another system in parallel