Time for an upgrade.
An old Athlon 2.6 Ghz processor doesn't have much chance with HD doing all the heavy lifting on its own.
There are some nice, cheap solutions available out there if you're cash strapped and even if you're not, you don't need a very expensive rig for an HTPC.
I've just upgraded my mobo to a Gigabyte mATX using AMD's new 780G chipset. Cost was AUD$110 so it's very affordable ($2.5 AUD to 1 GBP) and it's get everything you need for a basic HTPC and the integrated graphics will do all your HD decoding.
All you need to go with it is a cheap dual core Athlon 64 X2 and 1gb RAM (DDR2) which is cheap as chips these days and you can probably have yourself a rig far more powerful, far more energy efficient and quieter for not a huge amount of money.
The only other option you have is to upgrade your video card, but to do that, you'll be spending about 1/2 the price of a new m/b CPU RAM setup. |