Need help upgrading shuttle pc

[simpleH]

I bought a pre-made shuttle system a few years ago off ebay and it served me well until earlier this year. I built an i7 system as a replacement in April, and decided the old shuttle would make a good media center pc.

When I bought a Toshiba 40" TV in September, I hooked it up to the shuttle and it worked surprisingly well. I've been able to do almost everything I want with it since, outputting to the TV through a DVI to HDMI adapter and running at 1920x1080.

The shuttle's current specs:

• 2.4GHz athlon 64 3800+ processor
• nvidia 7600 256MB card
• 2GB of ram
• 250GB HD
• DVD writer drive and media card slots

Being a shuttle, I know it probably doesn't have more than a 450w power supply. I looked up the model number, pc43i3503 and confirmed this should be true.

I've been using it pretty heavily to watch movies and play some easy to run video games (Psychonauts and surprisingly Bioshock ran alright on it) but I find it lags when I try to watch 1080p content or rent movies off iTunes (laggy software?) and most newer games it can't play well.

I'd like to perform the simplest upgrade on it possible, getting the most out of 1 or 2 parts for the system, in hopes to later replace it with a more powerful system when my budget allows. I'm kind of worried the CPU might be too much of a bottleneck though to bother with upgrading.

Any suggestions (cheap video card(s)) or any other things you think might work well for the upgrade would be appreciated. My budget is about $200 for the whole thing as any more than that and I would probably be better off buying a PS3 or xbox 360.

Another goal would be to add a bluray drive, but as mentioned earlier, I don't know how well the system could play them.

Thanks!

 

[Steeeeve]

200 dollars..hmmm. You are probably getting killed on ram and your video card.

What model number do you have?

 

[Mozex]

I'm guessing he's using what I used to run also - an SN95G5. There were 3 revisions of the motherboard, rev 2 and 3 support dual-core socket 939 processors, so that would probably a cheap and effective upgrade.

 

[Dangman]

See, I thought you mean gaming performance in your PSU thread. If you just want to be able watch HD content, just get this cheap HD 4350 and you'll be fine:
$35 - Asus EAH4350 SILENT/DI/512MD2(LP) Radeon HD 4350 512MB PCI-E Video Card

The above video card will offload the decoding of watching HD content provided you're using the correct software. Hit up the HTPC subforum for more info on what software to use to watch HD content with hardware acceleration (the video card). Once you add the video card, you should be able to play Blu-Ray just fine.

For gaming however, that CPU is way too limiting. But quick question: Do you have DDR2 RAM or DDR RAM? Or another way to put it: Do you have a socket 939 or socket AM2 Shuttle?

 

[jeremyshaw]

EDIT: wrong thread. I meant to say Hard's thread, not yours. I'm sorry!

EDIT2: Might as well help out. I got a few ideas!

iTunes is gonna cause lag issues all the way upto a Phenom II, or a C2Q. I haven't had any 'high end' dual cores to test this with, only the 4200+X2 and the e6320. (t5600 for mobile)

For HTPC, a HD4350 will go fine, and it should be a tad bit faster compared to a 'best' configuration 7600gt. (8500gt > 6800 Ultra. (roughly 7600gt level) and 4350 > 8500gt)

If you want a mild upgrade, too, a 9800GT EE (all of the XFX cards on NewEgg are, but the images have not been updated to accomodate) for 100usd will do fine, too.

 

[simpleH]

EDIT: Posted my shuttle's specs

200 dollars..hmmm. You are probably getting killed on ram and your video card.

What model number do you have?

I have an NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT, revision A2; core is running at 560 mhz with 256mb DDR running at 700mhz.

I'm guessing he's using what I used to run also - an SN95G5. There were 3 revisions of the motherboard, rev 2 and 3 support dual-core socket 939 processors, so that would probably a cheap and effective upgrade.

I looked at CPUID and see a Shuttle Inc Model: FN26V10 with the NVIDIA nForce4 Rev. A3 chipset. Supports x16 PCI-E.

A few google searches haven't helped and since I can't seem to find any documentation on this board other than the NVIDIA Raid manual that came with it, I'm not sure what it supports as far as new CPU. Figuring that out will make a big difference.

For HTPC, a HD4350 will go fine, and it should be a tad bit faster compared to a 'best' configuration 7600gt. (8500gt > 6800 Ultra. (roughly 7600gt level) and 4350 > 8500gt)

If you want a mild upgrade, too, a 9800GT EE (all of the XFX cards on NewEgg are, but the images have not been updated to accomodate) for 100usd will do fine, too.

I would consider going for the 9800GT EE, if the power supply 450w shuttle PS could handle it.

See, I thought you mean gaming performance in your PSU thread. If you just want to be able watch HD content, just get this cheap HD 4350 and you'll be fine:
$35 - Asus EAH4350 SILENT/DI/512MD2(LP) Radeon HD 4350 512MB PCI-E Video Card

I think that'll be one of the first things I do for this upgrade if I don't go with the 9800, thanks!

For gaming however, that CPU is way too limiting. But quick question: Do you have DDR2 RAM or DDR RAM? Or another way to put it: Do you have a socket 939 or socket AM2 Shuttle?

The memory tab says the DRAM Frequency is 200mhz; that just seems unnatural to me. I would've thought this had DDR running at 400mhz. There're 2 1GB sticks in there: 1 I bought later (Corsair VS1GB400C3), and the other came with the box (Transcend Information TS128MLD64V4J), and 2 empty slots I think. So both sticks are PC3200.

The CPU is an AMD Athlon 64 3800+ (Venice) Sochet 939 90nm chip, stepping 2, revision DH-E6.

 

[Dangman]

A few google searches haven't helped and since I can't seem to find any documentation on this board other than the NVIDIA Raid manual that came with it, I'm not sure what it supports as far as new CPU. Figuring that out will make a big difference.

I would consider going for the 9800GT EE, if the power supply 450w shuttle PS could handle it.

The CPU is an AMD Athlon 64 3800+ (Venice) Sochet 939 90nm chip, stepping 2, revision DH-E6.

A CPU upgrade would not be worth it since Socket 939 has been EOL'd for the last 2-3 years or so. As a result, the prices for socket 939 CPUs have jumped up significantly in the past few years. The cheapest socket 939 X2 4800+ CPU I could find was $150 via eBay. You could get a new mobo, significantly faster CPU, and RAM for that much money. Not to mention that socket 939 dual-core CPUs will limit many newer cards like the 9800GT let alone a single core 939 CPU when it comes to gaming. Besides, there are better video cards in that $110 price range. Granted those better video cards will still be severly limited by any 939 CPU but still..

The memory tab says the DRAM Frequency is 200mhz; that just seems unnatural to me. I would've thought this had DDR running at 400mhz. There're 2 1GB sticks in there: 1 I bought later (Corsair VS1GB400C3), and the other came with the box (Transcend Information TS128MLD64V4J), and 2 empty slots I think. So both sticks are PC3200.

That's the correct reading actually. Remember that DDR means Double Data Rate. So 200 x 2 = DDR 400. Nothing wrong with the way CPU-Z reads the RAM speeds

 

[jeremyshaw]

I chose the 9800gt because of the 66W TDP common to the EE versions of these cards.