Goal: view 1080p played from hard drive using Zoom Player

[slothrop]

I currently own a Dell Dimension 4300.
I have a very tight budget.

Here are the specs:

Motherboard intel 845
SDRAM PC133 with 512MB
AGP 66mHz with NVIDIA GEFORCE 2MX
PCI 33mHz with ATI RADEON X1300
Other PCI: Firewire/USB Combo, Creative Soundblaster, Ethernet
Primary Monitor: ViewSonic 19 inch LCD VP191s connected by VGA to NVIDIA card
Secondary Monitor: Samsung 22 inch widescreen LCD T220 connected by DVI to ATI card

So...the puzzle is, how can I come to view flawless 1080p playback using Zoom Player
on my Samsung monitor without breaking the bank?

Thanks.

 

[theAnimal]

What's your CPU?

 

[slothrop]

Oops, forgot to post the most important bit.

Intel Pentium 4 at 1500Mhz

 

[slothrop]

What's your CPU?

Intel Pentium 4 at 1500Mhz

 

[slothrop]

Can I scrap the whole motherboard and reuse the memory, AGP card, and PCI cards? Are these backwards compatible?

 

[theAnimal]

What's your budget?

 

[slothrop]

Three hundred semolians, fresh and green.

 

[theAnimal]

I would recommend the following:

ASRock A780FullHD AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail $57
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157149

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5050e Brisbane 2.6GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 45W Dual-Core Processor - Retail $62
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103298

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail $39
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231207

And you'll probably want a new case and PSU:

Antec New Solution Series NSK4480 Chassis - $90 shipped
http://www.buy.com/prod/antec-new-solution-series-mini-tower-case-w-earthwatts-380w-psu-silver/q/loc/101/204901695.html?dcaid=15890

The mobo only has 2 PCI slots, but you won't need the PCI video card. If you don't use firewire, you won't need that card. The on-board sound is probably at least as good as the Soundblaster.

 

[slothrop]

The mobo only has 2 PCI slots, but you won't need the PCI video card. If you don't use firewire, you won't need that card. The on-board sound is probably at least as good as the Soundblaster.

Will I be able to run 2 monitors from the one video card? I will need firewire, I use it a lot. The onboard sound is fine. Thanks

 

[slothrop]

And you'll probably want a new case and PSU:
Antec New Solution Series NSK4480 Chassis - $90 shipped
http://www.buy.com/prod/antec-new-solution-series-mini-tower-case-w-earthwatts-380w-psu-silver/q/loc/101/204901695.html?dcaid=15890

Can I get it to work with my old tower case? I'm not sure how many watts the power supply is in the dell dimension 4300. Perhaps 250 watts.

 

[theAnimal]

Will I be able to run 2 monitors from the one video card? I will need firewire, I use it a lot. The onboard sound is fine. Thanks

Yes, the mobo has two video outputs.

 

[theAnimal]

Can I get it to work with my old tower case? I'm not sure how many watts the power supply is in the dell dimension 4300. Perhaps 250 watts.

If the case accepts microATX mobos, then you could re-use it. The parts I chose use very little power, so 250W is plenty if the PSU is a standard ATX.

 

[slothrop]

If the case accepts microATX mobos, then you could re-use it.

I wonder if I can check before trying, to know if the case accepts microATX motherboards.

 

[theAnimal]

I wonder if I can check before trying, to know if the case accepts microATX motherboards.

Some Dell cases and PSUs are proprietary, but I don't know if your particular model is or not. Maybe someone else does.

 

[slothrop]

Some Dell cases and PSUs are proprietary, but I don't know if your particular model is or not. Maybe someone else does.

I hope to follow your recommendations shortly. Thank you very much!

 

[slothrop]

Some Dell cases and PSUs are proprietary, but I don't know if your particular model is or not. Maybe someone else does.

The motherboard suffers from lack of availability. If it could be had at the price named, it would be nice, though. Any other thoughts?

 

[theAnimal]

The motherboard suffers from lack of availability. If it could be had at the price named, it would be nice, though. Any other thoughts?

It was in stock when I checked it, and hopefully it will be back in soon. But if not then any one of these should do.

 

[slothrop]

It was in stock when I checked it, and hopefully it will be back in soon. But if not then any one of these should do.

Do you think this one will do the trick?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ASRock-G43TWINS-FULLHD-Motherboard-DDR2-4GB-Memory_W0QQitemZ270353496268QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item270353496268&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50

 

[theAnimal]

Do you think this one will do the trick?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ASRock-G43TWINS-FULLHD-Motherboard-DDR2-4GB-Memory_W0QQitemZ270353496268QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item270353496268&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50

It's cheaper on newegg. It's also an Intel board, so an E5200 CPU would be good instead of the AMD I linked.