hardware upgrade recomendation for dvd2vcd

[ofirmantis]

Hi all

I want to upgrade my old computer to something I could work with and I need experienced users to tell me if I am making the right decision here:

my needs are programming/simple games (no need for anyting special here) and for converting DVD to VCD's .

I have a low budget and according to it I was recommended to buy:

CPU: AMD Duron 1.3ghz
mother board: GIGABYTE GA-7VTXE+
memory: 256mb DDR PC-2100 266MHZ

currently I am working with PII 350 with 256mb sdram and the whole dvd2vcd proccess usually takes me about 15 hours. can someone tell me how long (approximately) it will take me with the upgrade?

does Pentium 4 is much faster than AMD (in general) ?
is the newer AMD CPU's are much faster than the AMD 1.3?

thanks in advandce,

Ofir

[DBaT]

For better performance with cheap price get a XP1600 or XP1800 and
go for some overclocking. I think you should find quite easily a cheap used XP.
I don't know anything about GIGABYTE GA-7VTXE+ but uf it has A266
chipset then you are ok. Go to anandtech or tomshardware and do a search fo more info.

[NeoBlade]

DBat is right but go for a XP1800 or above(even though they are running at 1533Mhz). You'll find a big difference on what you are currently doing.

I wouldn't advise overclocking on the gigabyte board - they are not too reliable on the thermal protections. Stay with the norm, you won't know the difference since you are coming up from such a low spec. Try and get a GA-7VRX. The board performs better and runs better with the DDR2100. If money permits go to a GA-7VRX and get 333Mhz DDR2700. The speed is great!

Good luck! :)