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I'm not the most technically minded PC user, however I want to upgrade my RAM and graphics card so my machine can handle more up-to-date games- it's an XP machine, about 3-4 years old, running on 1GB of RAM at the mo, and a 2Ghz processor. Can anyone help me?

You can utilise [url-http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php]CPU-Z[/url] to find out your RAM. It will also give you your motherboard, which will let you know if you have PCI-E or AGP.

For graphics card, right click my computer, properties, hardware, device manager and it will be under display adapter.

Hope this helps.

2GHz Intel or AMD? There's a big difference.

Hell, what kind of Intel or AMD processor will also make a big difference. A 2GHz Core 2 is still a decent processor. A 2GHz Pentium 4, or even a 2GHz AthlonXP, is pretty old at this point.

quick answer?

use Sisoft Sandra, which gives you more than you ever wanted to know about your system.

you'll need to extract your motherboard model from that, and from there you can look up info on your motherboard (usually from the manufacturer) and see what the limits of your upgrade options are. You may find it's not worth it for a system 4 years old, just too much obsolete technology.

Granted if your system handles PCI-e, you can probably go to 2gb of ram and a decent (8800GT) video card and do quite well with most games. They're a lot less CPU bound lately.

Judging by the 3-4 years old comment, I can lay out some general recommendations:

You're most likely on AGP, so the best cards that are currently available and in stock are going to be the 7600 GS and 7600 GT AGP versions (not the PCI-E one). Soon the 3850 will be coming out in AGP at a price of about $250, but will blow all other AGP cards completely out of the water for performance.

Your CPU is either an Intel Pentium 4, AMD Athlon XP, or AMD Athlon 64. If it's an Athlon 64 at 2 GHz, you're doing okay. If not, the CPU is way old and outdated and I wouldn't recommend sinking more money into the system, but would instead save for a new one.

Thanks for the advice guys- I'll look into an upgrade, but after what you've said, I'm starting to think a whole new system is needed. Luckily, I've seen one for £399 that could fit the bill- 500GB hard drive, 3GB ram and 512MB dedicated graphics- plus I get 10% off as I work there.

512MB dedicated graphics doesn't mean much by itself. It could be anything from sucktastic to great, and in that price range I'd put my guess on close to sucktastic. Find out which specific model it is. Also, find out which CPU is installed.

Yes, and run it by us before you buy. Most people seem to spend first and then come and ask if it was a good decision, and often it wasn't.