Need help building a DVB dream home theater computer

[mrnewbie]

I'm a garbage picker....dug a computer out of garbage..had floppy..cdr rw drive...hd and memory pulled..I needed the floppy

Came home looked up specs on internet..Insignia 300

Processor: Intel® Pentium® 4 2.8 GHz
Bus: 400 MHz
uses 266 MHz DDR SDRAM
CD-RW/DVD-ROM Combo Drive: 52x/32x/52x CD-RW + 16x DVD-ROM
Total Expansion Slots: 3 PCI
USB Ports: 6 supports USB 2

Wow, thats a nice computer to be throwing away

...threw in a spare 512K mem stick...she fired right up...put in a junk hd..installed XP

Now I have a basic computer to run DVB Dream

Now I need DVB-S card ..After much reading here ordered a Skywalker-1 usb
Now I need a good video card...

Went to comp store to get a Gforce 8500 or maybe 9600

What the heck is this PCI express stuff...PCI express X16...never heard of it..
My motherboard has only PCI..can't run 8500

The only card I could even find was a gforce 6200

Bought gforce 6200 and another 1G mem stick

It works fine on all standard def channels...motion not fluid on 720I HD channels..not bad just a litle glitchey..awful on 1080I channels.

I must face facts...I wasted my money on the 6200..and perhaps money on the 1gig stick...unless I can use it in the next system...I can always give the 6200 to one of the kids for there Game computers...

So, I need a new MB with a PCI express slot supports P4 CPU and hopefully Can utilize my 1Gig {266 MHz DDR SDRAM} stick

Went to a MB superstore internet site ...confused....so may boards
Don't have any idea where to start...not up on whats new..

I don't know...Am I heading in the right direction trying to utilize the 1.5G of memory that I already have....or should I bite the bullet and just get a new MB with DDR3 or DDR2 and buy new memory...


Advice please...
thanks for your time

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[beagle]

I'd bite the bullet myself but different codecs might fix your HD problem. What are you using now for codecs?

[mrnewbie]

I went the new mb route...


After playing around for an hour or so..I figured out all the new terminology...


Cheap mb (667mhz max)...will works with p4...will accept dual core cpu so can add if needed

2 1meg ddr2 677mhz sticks


all for under $100..... hell I paid almost that for the 1gig(2700) stick

Guess that will go to kids or in another computer..so not wasted..just not needed..

Don't know why..but the ddr2 memory is realy cheap...I'm all set..


Codec's...don't remember...tested all the ones in the codec thread on this board...settled on the recomended ones..

Less cpu intensive codecs can help...but its the graphics card...just not up to job...will try again after getting new computer set up...before I run out and buy gefore 8500


thanks