Upgrade an Old(ish) Dell

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Hi Guys,

I'm currently operating a 2 year old Dell Studio Desktop 540MT with the following:
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E8400 processor (3.00GHz, 1333MHz, 6MB cache)
2048MB RAM
500GB 7200rpm SATA HD
256mb ATI Radeon HD 3450
Stock power supply (it says Delta Electronics DPS-350XB-3 A on the side of it but there is a switch to go between 115 & 230v on the back of the case)
Windows 7 Ultimate

Its served me well for the past couple of years and its fine for day-to-day surfing and what not but when it comes to gaming its really starting to show its age. I can play FM 2011 and Sims 3 ok and Mafia II runs at an acceptable standard on lowish settings but if i load up Battlefield 2 or Operation Flashpoint Red River they start but they aint pretty!

My first port of call will probably be to add a little RAM (at least 1gb, maybe 2 even though im on a 32-bit system)
I've got an external HDD so i'll use that to free up some space from my (fairly crowded) hard drive
On to the graphics card which, i understand, is pretty crap and about as graphically capable as a 3 year-old with a box of crayons! The problem is that its a low profile, half height card (i think) so my options are limited so i'm turning to you guys:

what would you suggest to get the most out of my current system considering price is a major issue?
will my current power supply be sufficient if i do upgrade anything?
will 4gb RAM make a difference from 3gb? will the extra memory that a 32-bit system wont recognise have any negative effects?
any other suggestions (apart from dont get a dell next time)?



edit: sorry for the essay

edit 2: forgot to mention, on top of gaming i plan to get a new TV in the near future so i'd also want to be able to use that as a monitor for gaming (i can probably do that with my current graphics card but not my crappy tv :p and its probably a standard for any card these days but hey ho..)
 
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Personally, considering your stuck with a half height GPU my thoughts would be to sell up and start from scratch - Ignore for a second might be talking cobblers!!!
You can upgarde to a newer gpu like the 5550 or the 5570 which should give a slight performance boost.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-226-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1699

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=701&catid=56&subid=168

Edit: Can you take a pic of the case, as you might be able to fit a full size card!
 
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for the budget it kind of depends what i'll need. I dont mind paying the fifty-odd quid for the card RJC posted but if i'll then need a new PSU and RAM and all together it will only give me minimal improvement then maybe i am better off saving for a whole new set up. I dont have a finite figure in mind as i dont know how much of an improvement is available given where i'm starting from but i'd like to stay under £100 if possible (or not too much over if it'll give me more bang for my buck)

a few pics:

http://img7.imageshack.us/i/imag0456.jpg/
http://img823.imageshack.us/i/imag0455s.jpg/
http://img687.imageshack.us/i/imag0453a.jpg/

i dont know if they are doing anything for you - the quality's terrible and the lighting in here is even worse! What is it you need to see in the pics? maybe i can do better in the daytime or something

edit: Daveash, my case looks very much like that :D
 
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Cheers for the pis, they look like full height slots so you can pretty much put a decent card in there but this will be dependant on the PSU and connections.

Do you have a rough budget in mind.
 
Cheers for the pis, they look like full height slots so you can pretty much put a decent card in there but this will be dependant on the PSU and connections.

Do you have a rough budget in mind.

sorry, just re-edited the post above, i was thinking around £100 all-in but that was really just a number i plucked out of thin-air. if i can get more for less then great :D if i can get a lot more for not too much more (if you see what i mean) then ok
 
OK, well if you want to play Battlefield (I'm assuming it's Bad Company 2?) and OF, I'd suggest visiting a certain auction site and trying to find an ATi 4890, should set you back £70ish. You may well need a new PSU though, the model number suggests it may only be 350w, you may need something like this:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-042-BQ&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1083

You will see a dramatic improvement over your current set up, but if saving for an entirely new system is an option then I'd suggest you do that.
 
this is the cheapest decent PSU i can find here:
corsair 430W: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-033-CS

dont bother with the OcUK value stuff. using a cheap PSU is a complete no-no

as for graphics cards at the £55 mark, im clueless. the cheapest thing that i know is good is the sapphire 5830 thats on offer this week, but that would bring it up to £125. no idea about the cheaper cards
 
To be honest. I'd try and sell the Dell and then put whatever cash you have towards getting a whole new pc. The OEM mass produced guff that companies like Dell produce really isn't worth spending a great deal of cash on and you usually end up with more problems than you did to begin with. I'm speaking from experience. Doing up old desktop pc's to play games isn't always a good idea.

You should be able to get a decent desktop that can play your games for around £350 give or take a little. Minus the 100-150 quid you might scrape from selling your current Dell. It's not so bad of a deal.
 
I had a Dell till recently, I went down the route you are thinking of and got a new graphics card and power supply to cope with it. It made a fair difference. Then my motherboard died and I effectively replaced everything with the exception of the new stuff, and it was worth every penny. If you use your computer more than a couple of hours per day I'd suggest saving up and upgrading the whole rig, it'll be worth it! ;)
 
Phenomenologica: Did the motherboard dying have anything to do with you upgrading (ie - couldn't handle it) or just because it was another cheap component?

I had a feeling the general advice would be to ditch the dell and start over but was hoping to avoid that and save some pennies if at all possible. i'll have a look around at what people are charging for similar set-ups to mine to see how much selling it might bring in
 
you can get one of these 5670's for about £60
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-196-XF&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=

I got one myself which I run crysis at decent settings at 720p, wouldn't go any higher than that with it but otherwise it is a pretty nice starter card.

that with this cooler master psu for £35 should keep you in good stead

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-230-CM&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=

What type of memory you using, I guess it is DDR 2 but any clue what speed mate
 
(don't do this, it's a joke!)

Switch the PSU from 230v to 115v to make it go faster (switching it reduces latency between your PSU and components)!

(don't do this, it's a joke!)
 
Put a new graphics card in. You could pick up an AMD 56xx card which is unpowered (should be ok with your current PSU!) and will play games okayish! Oh and add another gig of RAM. Because you're looking for a cheap upgrade 3GB should do the job, although if 4GB isn't that much more I'd go for it. I found 2GB was pretty dire for games. 3GB was a massive jump in performance; 4GB not so much.
 
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