Intel Core i7-6700K (14nm Skylake)

[watercooled]

@Article author: What setup are you using for your Handbrake test? You mention QuickSync in the article but they look more like software results. Presence of QS would have no impact on software encoding.

Also QS results can't really be compared to software results for obvious reasons; you're comparing two completely different encoders and x264 generally offers considerably better quality/compression than hardware.

[Daheelah]

What sort of CPU is in that system? A lot of older systems could see a significant uplift in performance by installing a basic SSD as HDD clutter and hundreds of Windows updates tend to drag down performance a fair bit.

Hello Watercooled, sorry for the slow response.

Dell Inspirion 531 (2007) Original Specs:

AMD Athlon X2 Dual Core PROCESSOR 6000+
2GB (2X1024MB) 667MH
320GB SERIAL ATA HDD
NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT
Vista Home

Current Specs:
4GB (4X1024MB) 667MH
Added 1TB WD HDD
GeForce GTX 750
Win 8.1 Pro

Yes adding an SSD is probably a move I might make thanks, as it should improve things somewhat but I am not sure the net increase will be great because the machine's struggle is by no means limited to read/write intensive tasks. I suppose I could always utilise the SDD elsewhere should it prove to be wasted on the Dell.
In any case it still has some mileage left in it and is not being fully retired yet; rather, it is for now being relieved of a host of duties. Thanks for the idea!

[Daheelah]

Ah fair enough. TBH I'd suggest building the kids an AMD equipped system and save yourself several hundred quid. A quad core AMD will save you about 200 quid and the most you'd lose between that and a high end Intel, assuming a discreet GPU is in place, would be about 10fps. Also going to assume as it's kids you have it hooked up to a TV ? So as long as it's not 4K the most they'll need to push is 1080p, meaning an AMD quad core and a GTX960 would give them 60FPS no matter what. Just a suggestion, if you wanna spoil em (and give you an excuse to give yourself an even higher end rig) go ahead ha.

Belated thanks for your useful input!!!