upgrading components for a 10y old PC

[sapre]

hello.

im looking to upgrade my Dell pc which is about 10 years old and wondered if it would be worthwhile to do so. I have a more powerful PC now, so this machine will only be used for basic web surfing and watching TV/Video.

I would like to connect to a large flatscreen TV (~40 inches) with good quality video output.

also, its quite a noisy machine so I would like to change the noisy components if possible. powersupply? graphics card? (i already changed the case and cpu fans with silent ones)

so i wondered what sort of component changes people would recommend.
- new processor?
- new graphics card?
- more RAM?
- new power supply?

current specs are below, please let me know if i miss any important info.
any thoughts would be appreciated.

thanks
S

DMI Baseboard
vendor Dell Inc.
model 0FM586
revision ÿÿÿ
serial ..CN736047C203AP.

Name Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
Codename Kentsfield
Specification Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz
Package (platform ID) Socket 775 LGA (0x4)
CPUID 6.F.B
Extended CPUID 6.F
Core Stepping G0
Technology 65 nm
Core Speed 1596.0 MHz
Multiplier x Bus Speed 6.0 x 266.0 MHz
Rated Bus speed 1064.0 MHz
Stock frequency 2400 MHz


Chipset
Northbridge Intel P35/G33/G31 rev. A2
Southbridge Intel 82801IR (ICH9R) rev. 02
Graphic Interface PCI-Express
PCI-E Link Width x16
PCI-E Max Link Width x16
Memory Type DDR2
Memory Size 3 GBytes
Channels Dual, (Symmetric)
Memory Frequency 332.5 MHz (4:5)
CAS# latency (CL) 5.0
RAS# to CAS# delay (tRCD) 5
RAS# Precharge (tRP) 5
Cycle Time (tRAS) 15
Row Refresh Cycle Time (tRFC) 44
Command Rate (CR) 2T
Host Bridge 0x29C0


Display adapter 0
ID 0x2060130
Name ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT
Board Manufacturer 0x1028 (0x2542)
Codename RV630
Technology 65 nm
Memory size 256 MB
Memory bus width 128 bits
PCI device bus 1 (0x1), device 0 (0x0), function 0 (0x0)
Vendor ID 0x1002 (0x1028)
Model ID 0x9588 (0x2542)
Performance Level 0

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Not worth updating that DELL setup , very outdated.

 

[TJ Hooker]

I would like to connect to a large flatscreen TV (~40 inches) with good quality video output.

What resolution is the TV? What is the power supplies rated wattage and 12V rail amperage (should say on the PSU label)? Adding a cheap modern graphics card may make your PC suitable as a video player.

Are your case fans plugged into the motherboard for speed control? If so, and you've recently replaced the CPU cooler as you said, I would assume the graphics card or PSU is the noisy component.

 

[sapre]

Not worth updating that DELL setup , very outdated.

I would like to connect to a large flatscreen TV (~40 inches) with good quality video output.

What resolution is the TV? What is the power supplies rated wattage and 12V rail amperage (should say on the PSU label)? Adding a cheap modern graphics card may make your PC suitable as a video player.

Are your case fans plugged into the motherboard for speed control? If so, and you've recently replaced the CPU cooler as you said, I would assume the graphics card or PSU is the noisy component.

Thanks for the quick reply guys.

Power output is 350w.

Not sure what resolution the tv will be, Looking to buy a new HD tv...

The case fan is plugged into the motherboard. And I also suspect the fraphics card for the noise...

So a cheap modern graphics card with the rest of the pc will gife me decent quality cideo?

Cheers

 

[TJ Hooker]

Well, image quality won't really be affected by your system components. It's just that video needs to be decoded. This can be done by the CPU, and given how old yours is it may struggle. Alternatively, GPUs have dedicated video decoders that can do it without taxing your CPU. So if you get something like a GTX 950 or RX 550, they should be able to decode up to 4K video. However, if the video is in a codec the GPU doesn't support, you may have issues.

Edit: the only downside to pairing a new card with a very old system like that is I've heard that some new cards require UEFI BIOS, whereas if you system is old enough it will only have a legacy BIOS. Unfortunately info on this is pretty spotty. I've repeatedly heard that Geforce 10 series cards require UEFI, otherwise I'd recommend a GT 1030. I'm not positive about the other two that I listed above though.

 

[sapre]

Ok clear, thanks TJ. I'll gp for a new graphics card and will check compatibility with the bios. Cheers