Crashing trouble

[Ogrezilla]

I have been having trouble with running games lately and looking at the requirements I could use a new CPU, RAM, Video Card and if I upgrade those a new Power Supply. I was just looking for help picking out some parts that would be good upgrades for what I have at a reasonable price. I am looking to spend up to about 300 bucks. Ideally I would end up able to run something like Mass Effect, but I don't know how much that would end up costing me.

Here's what I have

Graphics Card: Nvidia Geforce 7600 GT
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Duel Core Processor 4200+
1 Gig ram
400 Watt Power Supply
Gigabyte GA-M55S-S3 Motherboard
Operating System: Windows XP

thanks for any help you can give me. I am pretty sure I found ram that would be good. http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820145098

My problem is mostly figuring out what parts are compatible with each other. I remember buying a video card that didn't fit because it had an extended slot or something like that, so I figured I would avoid that and ask for help this time.

Thanks for the help in advance

 

[wanderer27]

It looks like you have a 939 Socket System, so there's only so much you're going to be able to do without doing a whole System rebuild.

For starters, that's the wrong RAM - it's DDR2, you need plain DDR400 (PC3200) RAM.

I'd pick up 2 Gigs, this should help out some.

The item I would upgrade would be your Video Card - probably a 9600GT or 8800GT if you can afford it.

Your CPU isn't too bad, so I'd start with these and see how this works out before going any further.

 

[Sam25]

Yes, I would agree with wanderer27. I'm using a GeForce 7300GT on my old system, it's nice for the DirectX 9.0 games but the 8800GT would be undoubtedly better. It would have full support for DirectX 10 games which is awesome!!

 

[Ogrezilla]

thanks for the help


how does this ram look?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820231047

also, is there anything I should be looking for with power supplies other than the watts?

 

[wanderer27]

That should be decent RAM, and it's a fair price too.

As far as the PSU goes it really depends on which Video Card you go with.
You may not necessarily need to upgrade it.

Go with a good brand, there've been quite a few good deals on quality PSU's lately.