Really old system upgrading.

[Ulti]

That p4 2.6ghz would be a good start as would some 512mb sticks 2 or more depending on how many slots that motherboard has.
Graphics card is not really an issue

Otherhalf is still on the system I put together for her a long while back, 478 P4 3.0ghz, 865PE chipset, 1.5gb memory (2x256 + 2x512mb all 400mhz) and my old fx5200 128mb agp graphics card

Make sure the windows install is lean and mean, and double check antivirus used, some of them have got some quite horrendious memory and process footprints.
(other half is on Antivira free and spybot)

And you'll want to get something a bit better than stock cooler, nothing horendious, the 478 p4 was slightly cooler running than the 775 p4 but not by much and the stock cool can struggle.
I fitted a Scyte samurai on her one because I got fed up of the constant whiring&whining as the stock fan kept ramping up even when idle.

found on in fleabay http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Scythe-Samurai...25cec5febf257c
but any decent 92mm fan based cooler should be fine

Although I don't claim to be any OS cleaning expert I can say that it's 99% clean, running around 24 or so processes. I'll go ahead and order the CPU then. I'm not gonna bother getting a new cooler as it's gonna cost way too much.

Amazing what you can find on Google, isn't it

Shame. The chipset supports 3 slots too - flippin' cheapass HP. You'll have to source 2 512MB sticks then. Judging by the HP specs there's a lot of chipset features that aren't supported on that board: SATA, for instance...
Hmmmm... like I said, it was quite a long time ago but I did have issues with shifting a lot of data through the USB controller on a SIS-based mobo, even at 512kbps. Problem resolved as soon as I moved to using a router via ethernet. DO you have a PCI wireless card you could try? It's a bit of a shot in the dark, but if the PC plays DVDs alright there's no good reason for streaming video causing it problems, and if the wireless dongle works OK in your PC it's not that...

p.s. if you haven't got any PCI wireless cards, guess what...?

Haha, I was blinded searching for SiS661FX, didn't realise searching the motherboard name would have actually helped, stupid me.

Hope you have 2 512MB sticks The DL speed seems to be alright to so I don't think it's that.

The Celeron D 330 is based on the hot running 90NM Prescott. The 130NM P4 you have linked too is an earlier Northwood but these actually run cooler and consume less power too!!

Well I just went ahead and bought the processor

[scaryjim]

Hope you have 2 512MB sticks

Fraid not - you'll see when I list them. I will make it clear on the listing that you have first refusal on anything you fancy though

[Ulti]

Got the processor, installed it pretty easily (well had to run back upstairs to see how to remove the heatsink) but it ran without any problems. There's certainly a performance boost and it seems I might not need to bother with getting more memory or a new graphics card now.

I noticed that there was a graphics card in there actually, it's a GeForce Ti4200. Should I bother upgrading this? Mind you there the CPU seems to be around 2-3 times faster now.

I might install some drivers and see how it goes if I have the time to, rather busy tonight. Not sure if I already installed the latest drivers.

[scaryjim]

You'll see even more performance increase if you do upgrade the RAM, but tbh 512MB *should* be enough for a fairly clean XP Install. I'd mark it as a very nice to have, but not an essential.

A Ti4200 was a fairly monster card back in the day, but the day was a long time ago If the computer's used for any gaming at all, upgrade to something at least as good as a Radeon 9700pro (here's a Hexus review comparing the Radeon 9700pro to a Ti4600 (basically just a higher clocked Ti4200). If it's mostly just streaming video, then it's probably not worth bothering.

[Ulti]

Well I won't specifically look to upgrade it but if I see some cheap stuff on the FS forums I'll look into getting it

Thanks for the help guys.

EDIT: Seems I was wrong. Just tested out a HD YouTube video and it uses up 100% CPU and stutters :/ Will memory or graphics card help more in this case?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Well I won't specifically look to upgrade it but if I see some cheap stuff on the FS forums I'll look into getting it

Thanks for the help guys.

EDIT: Seems I was wrong. Just tested out a HD YouTube video and it uses up 100% CPU and stutters :/ Will memory or graphics card help more in this case?

Firstly I would try Opera or Chrome to see how the flash video will play. I have issues getting smooth flash playback using Firefox 3.5 on my Pentium M notebook but Opera and IE seems fine for some reason. I would also make sure that the latest version of Flash is also installed.

If this does not help then perhaps some RAM maybe of use but I would check RAM usage during playback first.

HD3000 series GPUs onwards will accelerate flash playback:

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=21200

There is an HD3450 AGP available too:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/169448