Extending the life of an old system as a HTPC

[Graybeard]

I have an old ASUS A8N-e board with an Athlon x64 3800+ cpu. I recently installed a Radeon 5770 Graphics card. I was hoping to use this old machine for a HTPC. It works well with netflix (Silverlight) but is still shaky on HULU (Flash). I'm pretty sure I have all the most recent drivers and versions for all of the above.

Netflix gives me ~80% CPU usage. Hulu pegs it at 100%

Do you think overclocking the Athlon will improve the flash playback?

I know the 5770 is overkill for HTPC, but it's ultimate destiny is in a soon to be built mid level gaming machine.

 

[megamanx00]

A single core 3800+ 2.4GHz ( or dual core 2.0GHz version) is a bit too slow. Enable Hardware Acceleration for flash. Right Click on a flash object, click settings, and click the first tab. The tabs are on the bottom. Click "Enable Hardware Acceleration". That may help, but of course on some systems it also causes crashes . If that doesn't work then overclocking it should help. Thing is, those nForce 4 chipsets generally aren't always that great at overclocking and being stable. It's a hit or miss.

 

[Graybeard]

A single core 3800+ 2.4GHz ( or dual core 2.0GHz version) is a bit too slow. Enable Hardware Acceleration for flash. Right Click on a flash object, click settings, and click the first tab. The tabs are on the bottom. Click "Enable Hardware Acceleration". That may help, but of course on some systems it also causes crashes . If that doesn't work then overclocking it should help. Thing is, those nForce 4 chipsets generally aren't always that great at overclocking and being stable. It's a hit or miss.

Thanks megamanx00,
I've never done any overclocking, so I am anxious about frying things. I had looked at getting a dual core cpu, but those old socket 969 units cost as much or more as a more than adequate cpu/mobo combo over at newegg. This old rig is still a great e-mail/facebook machine for the wife. I am just trying to save some $ so I can spend more on my new build. (hehe) The kids are now off to college and took all the gaming capable machines with them. I may be on the far side of 50, but I still enjoy a good RPG or FPS.