New Computer?

[ishmale]

So my old computer (AMD Athlon XP 2200+ 1.81 GHz 512MB RAM Windows XP) just can't keep up anymore. I use it strictly as a media PC. It was a TV card in it, but it mainly just plays videos on our TV.

But we just got a big screen TV (48" 1080p), and my old Xvid movies just look like crap now. So I started getting high def rips (mkv files), but my computer lags when trying to play them.

So my question to all of you... what do you think I need to play these high def rips? Can I get a used computer? Would you get a used computer? Is it better to get the computer in pieces (I really will only need a CPU, motherboard, RAM, and maybe a new HD since I only have IDE drives) or should I just buy the complete system from like dell and move the parts into my media pc case? I don't need a monitor, keyboard, or any software (I'm sticking /w XP... too many performance problems /w vista).

Also, I've been away from CPU pricing for so long that I'm not sure what's a good deal. I know I don't want to spend more than $500 (I'm assuming I can get a decent setup for that).

Any advice you guys have to offer would be greatly appreciated.

[kaskimondo]

So my old computer (AMD Athlon XP 2200+ 1.81 GHz 512MB RAM Windows XP) just can't keep up anymore. I use it strictly as a media PC. It was a TV card in it, but it mainly just plays videos on our TV.

But we just got a big screen TV (48" 1080p), and my old Xvid movies just look like crap now. So I started getting high def rips (mkv files), but my computer lags when trying to play them.

So my question to all of you... what do you think I need to play these high def rips? Can I get a used computer? Would you get a used computer? Is it better to get the computer in pieces (I really will only need a CPU, motherboard, RAM, and maybe a new HD since I only have IDE drives) or should I just buy the complete system from like dell and move the parts into my media pc case? I don't need a monitor, keyboard, or any software (I'm sticking /w XP... too many performance problems /w vista).

Also, I've been away from CPU pricing for so long that I'm not sure what's a good deal. I know I don't want to spend more than $500 (I'm assuming I can get a decent setup for that). Any advice you guys have to offer would be greatly appreciated.

I'm no expert, but you only have 512MB of ram? I'd upgrade that to 2gb and see how the PC performs. Should perform decently after the ram upgrade.
You could also get a decent Video card and throw that in too. Total cost would maybe be $50-75 or less depending on where you buy the parts. Try www.newegg.com