New Graphics Card--Need advice

1GB is alright unless you multitask like a mother trucker (like I do) and run a few apps in the background, The best games would ideally like more than 1GB, so 1536 may be wise, adding another 1GB is more sensible, but not as cheap!
What PSU do you use now?

 

hell yeah 1gb is not meant for multi tasking i have 1.5gb and if i take 1 stick off i cant have 2 aplication at the same time without it going slow

so its worth it

 

Mm, although this is all relative. Without a dual core processor I wouldn't recommend multi-tasking either. Don't know how I ever lasted without one.

 

Guys,
good skills again... my current set up is as follows

Dell dimension 8400
P4 processor 530 with HT technology (3.00ghz, 800 fsb 1mb cache)
1024MB DDR400 Dual Channel memory
and then all the usual DVD RW CD RW etc
160GB HD
Haven't got a clue what the psu is (I guess it is standard with the 8400)

Although I use this system for doing everything on at the moment, I really want to optimize it for gaming. I have an old laptop that should pretty much do eveything else (I hope) then I can strip this one down and make it a lean mean gaming machine!

That's the plan anyway but as you can tell Im no technical guru so I guess I'll be on here a lot!!!

Thanks again guys, any opinions and recommendations on my current set up will be most welcome!

 

1GB of RAM ain't too bad unless as I say you do a lot of multitasking. I can run a fair few games under the 1GB limit (recent ones too) if I don't multitask. Note that Doom 3 is not one of those games, however.

The 530 is alright, but a dual core would serve you much better, the graphics are probably either intel integarated or Radeon X300, so that counts gaming out until you get a decent GPU. The X1900GT and 7600GT are good bang-for-your-buck buys in the high performance sector (especially the X1900GT) these days. However, addition of either new CPU (and presumably motherboard and perhaps memory) or graphics card will require a new power supply. I'd recommend the Hiper Type-R series from personal experience.