Time for PC upgrades, need assistance.

Hello all. lets start with what i have now, then what i do with it, then i'll get into what i need the new one to do.

first, what i have. i have a PC tower built in 2004. its a Asus P4V8X-X series board, (AGP slots, no PCi or PCI-e) with a P4 3200MB single core chip, and 2 gigs of DDR2 Ram. the power supply, case, HDD, and graphics card were replaced in 2009 with a 750W supply with dual fans, and GeForce 7600 R, and plexi case with front, rear and side fans. the disc drive is a broken CDRW unit.

now, for what i do with it. its my TV. i use a DVI cable to run the video to my 55" rear projection Mitsu TV, and a headphone jack cable to run the sound to an adapter for the TV. i download movies, TV shows, that sort of thing, and usually watch stuff months or even years after it airs. i used to use netflix, but theres no good internet at my current house, so i use my verizon phone and WiFi port for now, until i move back to civilization. the video quality is so-so, and i cant run anything better than 720i, or it lags and skips. the audio is also simple stereo, which sucks. its also not booting up every time (win 7 ultimate), the internet browsers have all failed on me and need reloaded, and the audio card likes to fail and reboot the PC. the short of it is: its broken.

heres what i need: my TV has HDMI ports. i like the thought of sending both sound and video to my TV with one cable. i also like the better video quality and capability of a better card that isn't compatible with my AGP slot board. so i need to upgrade. my quandry is this: i have a small amount of good parts here. the HDD is fine, the case, fans, PSU, and 3 versions of windows 7, all in good shape. i need a new motherboard, new CPU with fan, new graphics card, new disc drive with DVD-RW, and possibly a sound card if the graphics card doesn't have it or the MB doesnt have decent onboard sound.

i don't really want to replace it, mostly because everything in my budget is a DELL or a HP, and i detest both. but it doesn't seem cost effective to rebuild it, considering im replacing over half of whats there, and the cost to rebuild may overshadow even a high end replacement. the REAL issue is, i haven't talked shop with a geek for over ten years, and i don't even know what to buy. back in the mid 2000's, i could chat with 4 or 5 people for an hour and know EXACTLY what to buy and where to buy it, and have a great machine. but i got into cars (your fault!!!) and got married (my fault) and had kids (her fault i swear! :P), so now im basically computer illiterate. the last time a built a PC, direct-X 8.0 was brand new, and Napster was still a 'thing'.

so, i need help. do i source last gen tech, (yet newer than what i have) parts and build a decnt machine that will play 1080 movies and do what i need? do i buy a used machine missing the HDD and strip it for parts and use my case and PSU? or do i just mothball my tower and start over? budget is very tight on this, ($300-400 MAX, id prefer -200-300).

minimum specs:

-HDMI video/audio output (onboard video is fine if its got the port and will handle 1080 with out jumping) -DVD-RW drive

-good onboard sound or decent sound card

-windows 7 compatible hardware/software

im not a gamer, and will never be, i just need a PC that works, and i'd like to build something that i can upgrade and keep using for another 10 years. i had no problem upgrading one thing every couple years to keep this one going. heck, thats why i hate dells and HPs, hard to upgrade, at leats in my expierence.

any and all input appreciated, especially if you tech types just want to post a list of 'buy this and this and this and stuff it in your case and load windows and drivers and enjoy'. that would be really cool...

:P

-J0N

just FYI... if you go with a new system you'll also need ram...

on the intel side I know hd4000 (what is integrated into the sandy bridge intel chips) will do 1080p with no issues that is what my laptop has and I can HDMI out to my TV with HD stuff all day with no issue...

I also know that I have an older dekstop that cost a little over $250 (barebones kit from tigerdirect) that I built in early 2012, 3.1ghz 3 core amd 8gb ram, 500gb hdd, some cheapo vid card that has no problem with HD via HDMI... the entire computer was old technology when I got it (which is why it was $250)...

I would consider looking at the barebone kits they offer, a quick look makes it seem like $250 is still a big sweet spot for stuff that would easily do what you need http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=9076319&CatId=31 (not sure on the AMD hd 3000 video but the rest would be pretty good stuff

if you just want to keep your power supply, case, and HDD, buy a motherboard, processor (use the stock cooler), and ram... choose the right motherboard and you can easily have enough power for dual monitor 1080

no matter what you do it's going to be light years ahead of the intel p4 processor...

Both AMD & Intel have stellar on board graphics now, HDMI out on the motherboard, for no more than what you're doing, they would be more than sufficient, so you wouldn't have to budget for a new graphics card. They're not blow you away gaming GPUs, but significantly better than what was the status quo just a few years back.

If your old hard drive is still IDE, I'd suggest upgrading to SATA.

A Haswell i3 with Intel 4400 or 4600 HD Graphics is around $130 on Newegg. All of the major players have motherboards with HDMI out in the $50 range. Memory is way cheaper $/GB than when you built your current rig, 8 GB of DDR3 ~$70, I remember paying $120 for 2x1GB sticks of Corsair Value Select DDR2. CD/DVD burner is around $20, or you can add a Bluray drive (not burner) for $50.

That'll keep you under $300-ish and reuse a lot of your current hardware. Might save more by going with 6 GB of ram, or if your only using 32 bit Win 7, stick with 4 GB. Some of the newer motherboards don't have legacy support for older IDE drives anymore, hence my earlier suggestion about a new SATA hard drive if needed.

• Lee

The thing that will always kill you is the motherboard. You can get the latest and greatest, but as you are realizing now, Firewire, IDE, and AGP don't last 10 years.

I agree... barebones kits from tigerdirect, newegg, or other sources are the way to go. Cheap, good, and very GRM.

the HDD will be replaced, i just ran internal diag on it, its days are numbered. it is Sata, but only 100GB, and over 40Gb of it is 'lost', windows and other file systems occupy another 30 gigs, and the rest is pictures and movies. im grateful for the assistance guys, and feel free to carry on with more, as it will likely be a few weeks before i get the time to do anything.

-J0N

Upgrade Kit EIG3140: Intel i3-4330 3.5GHz Dual Core, Gigabyte H81, G.Skill 8GB 1600MHz RAM $275 and a $10 MIR you MIGHT get back in 6-9 months.

I've seen previous generation 3 GB/Second 1 TB SATA drives for around $50, the current 6 GB/Sec are around $90.

• Lee