Upgrade CPU and or Video Card

Hello all, I'm new here. A long time ago, I was really in to computer hardware and I built my own system when I was in high school. Since then, I've lost track of the whole hardware scene.

About a year ago, I bought a kind of cheap Dell computer with a Core 2 Duo 6400 processor and an ATI Radeon X1300 low profile video card. I'm thinking about upgrading one or both of these components and I was hoping to tap some community knowledge for recommendations.

First, are there any substantially better low profile video cards than the one I already have? I've found it difficult to locate any other low profile PCI-e video cards.

Second, what are my options in terms of processor upgrades? I do a lot of video encoding, so I'm thinking bumping up to a quad core processor. Is this a wise decision or is it too expensive for the performance gain?

I'd love any thoughts to get me started in the right direction.

Actually, on that gpu, go out to newegg.com, they've got an ATI 4670. I don't know if they are a low profile card, but supposed to be a card that will perform almost on par with a 9600 gso, in other words, quite a performance jump from what you've got, but require no additional power connector and are supposed to be a lot smaller than a lot of higher end cards. Price is about 80 bucks I think. Check it out, may be just the ticket for you. That and a nice ram upgrade.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814127383

Here is a low profile card that would do much better.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102754

I would avoid upgrading the CPU and GPU.

#1 - The Cooling in your case is likely not very good.
#2 - The PSU is likely not overly strong so I would not want to add to much extra power draw.

Since you GPU is by far the weakest part of your setup, that is what I would upgrade.

Thanks everyone, especially zenmaster. I'm defnitely going to order up that low-profile Radeon HD 3650 you recommended. And ohiou_grad_06, thanks so much for the info, but it definitely needs to be low profile, the case doesn't have much clearance inside in the vertical direction. I'm not so worried about overheating, the case is very spacious inside, there's plenty of room for air to move around.