Computer technical people - help please! (motherboard/cpu)

I've got a Dell 5100 from 2005...so with an old P4 2.8 processor. Terribly slow of course.

Yesterday I kinda broke my monitor by accident, so now it's really time to upgrade to a better monitor. Looking at something bigger (got 17'' now, will likely go to 24''). Only issue is, in my current spec (see below), my computer is already struggling with older games. Playing games newer than 2006 on 1024x768 is neigh on impossible. With a 24'' monitor easily capable of 1600x12xx, there's not much point.

So, a few questions:

Been looking at a new processor (single core is really not working for what I ask from a computer anymore), which is the AMD Athlon II X4 640 Quad Core Processor - 3.00GHz and a new GFX card (MSI Radeon HD 5670 1024MB). Would I need a new motherboard as well?


Spec:
Dell 5100
CPU Intel Pentium 4 521, 2800 MHz
motherboard <DMI> Dell 5100 (dual DDR2 RAM)
Chipset PIN = 1202 FC-BGA (no idea what that is?)

 

Yes, intel and AMD processors use different motherboards.
Also, they change quite frequently so even upgrading to new processor of same brand would mean you'd need a new motherboard.

 

Yeah, new motherboard, CPU, ram and power supply is what you'll need to run anything new.

At this point, you are probably better off sliding that PC over and putting a whole new box in its place.

 

+1

But, it seems the 'puter itself isn't broken - I'd put 2GB RAM (made up of whatever is cheapest - 2x1's, 4x512's etc) in it, wipe the disk and install Ubuntu Desktop as it's "sideways move". I have the same processor (it's an LGA775 btw) in a box of about the same vintage, and with Ubuntu +2GB it's more than fast enough for surfing/video viewing and the like - It isn't gonna play any recent games, but it'll be a nice system.

Cheers,
Ian