CPU/Video card/TV tuner upgrade recommendations

[gthorley]

Hers what I presently have:

Motherboard Model K7S5A
AMD Athlon XP 1700 1.46 ghz 512 MB
ATI AIW 128 agp
60 and 80 gb HD

Planning on picking up a 19 inch LCD in near future.

Video card is one of the first with TV tuners and is ancient.

Present CPU seems OK for my needs, no gaming. Have never been able to capture video with this tuner in any decent way.

If I was to upgrade video card and tv tuner what would be best low cost option.

Something like this
ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 9600XT 128MB DDR AGP 8X
http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=009539&cid=999.821

or a video card plus say a Theatrix 550.

Also will my present CPU support the latest video cards/tuners?

[Oversized Rooster]

If you get a TV Tuner like the Sapphire Theatrix 550, your CPU will be OK. That card does all processing onboard.

If you get a cheaper tuner that uses the CPU power, then you'll still be OK, but might be able to multi-task as much. Your CPU is rather weak I'm afraid.

I have the Theatrix 550, and I'm quite happy with it. I am guessing that your mobo can only support AGP2X? If this is so, then any budget card like a GeForce 6600 or Radoen 9600 will be more than enough. Anything more will be a waste of money, cuz even midrange cards these days are made to run on at least AGP4X.

EDIT: I just checked the specs of your mobo. It DOES support AGP4X. If you plan to gaming at all, even lightly, check out a used 9800 Pro card and get the Theatrix 550 on the side.

[Bunkhouse]

Currently i have an ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 9600 PRO 128MB, had it for 2 years and absolutly love it.

You can't go wrong with that 9600XT for just over $100 :cheesygri . Mind you, you may want to consider throwing an extra 512MB ram in there too.

[jollyeskimo]

If you plan on doing a LOT of recording, then get a tuner with hardware mpeg2 encoding. Takes the load off the CPU and usually gives you better quality overall.

Personally, I would try to stay away from all in one solutions like the ATI AIW's, since if you need to upgrade the videocard, then you'll lose the tuner as well... if you pick the right tuner and don't switch formats (SDTV/HDTV) for your TV signal, it should last you much longer than your videocard will.

[stixxx]

if you don't game get a cheap 9000 or 9200 and get the new Sapphire Theatrix 550 and a extra 512 will juice you system more..hehe i used to have the ECS k7s5A it ran well for a cheap mobo ;)

[cipher]

Look at the Hauppage WinTV cards for a tuner. I don't recommend AIW cards...their video quality leaves much to be desired. Also, their software really sucks.

[gthorley]

Thanks everyone for the input

Rooster BTW where did you check up on my MB?

So am I correct in that unless I upgrade MB and chip to something a lot faster then I am better to get a card like the Sapphire Theatrix 550 which doesn't rely on CPU when capturing video? Notice that the Lite vs. is $14 less than the one with remote and Power Cinema software. Doubt that I would use the remote, is the software any good?

So if I went with something like this
Asus V9520-X/TD nVidia GeForce FX 5200(250MHz) 128MB(400MHz) 64 Bit DDR DVI-D Composite Output 2x/4x/8x AGP Graphics Card $47.00 at CC
and the Sapphire Theatrix 550 will I get much improvement over my ATI AIW rage 128? Any other inexpensive video cards anyone would care to recommend?