Upgrading my crappy PC

[Minimattt]

Okay, so... I want to upgrade my currently pathetic excuse for a PC into a budget gaming machine.

I currently have a Dell computer with an Inspiron 545 stock motherboard, an Intel Core 2 Quad CPU, 6gb of stock ram, a Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB hard drive, a CiT 450watt Power Supply and a Geforce GT 240 Graphics card.

I would like to replace the ram with a single 8gb stick and replace the GPU with a Radeon R7 260x

Questions:

A. Do I need to replace anything in order to swap out the parts I want?

B. If so, what are good replacements ideas?

C. Where can I buy said replacements that are guaranteed to deliver the parts in good quality and undamaged?

 

[okcnaline]

A) Swap out the RAM and the PSU. The PSU's not good.
B) RAM: Is it DDR2 or DDR3?
PSU: SeaSonic S12II 620W, XFX 550W, and to an extent, the EVGA SuperNova G2 750W PSU is great.
C) Newegg and Amazon are good choices.

 

[Minimattt]

A) Swap out the RAM and the PSU. The PSU's not good.
B) RAM: Is it DDR2 or DDR3?
PSU: SeaSonic S12II 620W, XFX 550W, and to an extent, the EVGA SuperNova G2 750W PSU is great.
C) Newegg and Amazon are good choices.

I think it's DDR3

 

[sirstinky]

As far as your PC, the 545 was a great desktop in it's day and is still a decent machine that will play modern and older games at low resolutions, some older games you could max. The Core 2 Quad it came with was a 8300 I think, 2.5 GHz. A good CPU even today. For the memory, get two 4 GB sticks instead of a single 8 GB one so you can run in dual channel. It will run faster that way. Upgrade to the fastest RAM your board will handle. I think it's PC2-6400 800 MHz.

For the graphics, your power supply should be fine. The 260x doesn't need a lot of power but you could go to a good quality 500 watt if you wanted. Only needs about 75 watts of power so one 6 pin PCIe connector. The best place (in my opinion) to get the parts is Amazon. I love their customer protection policies for delivery speed and product description/condition. Had to return items several times with no issues. Plus free shipping.

 

[sirstinky]

A) Swap out the RAM and the PSU. The PSU's not good.
B) RAM: Is it DDR2 or DDR3?
PSU: SeaSonic S12II 620W, XFX 550W, and to an extent, the EVGA SuperNova G2 750W PSU is great.
C) Newegg and Amazon are good choices.

I think it's DDR3

DDR2 6400

 

[Minimattt]

As far as your PC, the 545 was a great desktop in it's day and is still a decent machine that will play modern and older games at low resolutions, some older games you could max. The Core 2 Quad it came with was a 8300 I think, 2.5 GHz. A good CPU even today. For the memory, get two 4 GB sticks instead of a single 8 GB one so you can run in dual channel. It will run faster that way. Upgrade to the fastest RAM your board will handle. I think it's PC2-6400 800 MHz.

For the graphics, your power supply should be fine. The 260x doesn't need a lot of power but you could go to a good quality 500 watt if you wanted. Only needs about 75 watts of power so one 6 pin PCIe connector. The best place (in my opinion) to get the parts is Amazon. I love their customer protection policies for delivery speed and product description/condition. Had to return items several times with no issues. Plus free shipping.

A) Swap out the RAM and the PSU. The PSU's not good.
B) RAM: Is it DDR2 or DDR3?
PSU: SeaSonic S12II 620W, XFX 550W, and to an extent, the EVGA SuperNova G2 750W PSU is great.
C) Newegg and Amazon are good choices.

I think it's DDR3

DDR2 6400

Ah, thanks