OK, I confess - I am one of those dummies who, so excited about the release of Hells Highway, didn't NB that my graphics card is not man enough for the job. I have the following set-up:

Dell Dimension 5150 (305W PSU)
Running Windows XP SP3
Pentium 4 3.20 GHz
3.00Gb RAM
Radeon X600 256Mb (yes, I know...)

So, I am going to upgrade the Graphics Card and the PSU on my PC.

I'm not a fanatical games player - BiA and IL2 are about as much as I do, to be honest (with the occasional war game thrown in for good measure.) So, I don't want to go mad and my PC is 3 years old, after all.

I'm figuring that a 500W PSU ought to do it - might go for 600W. So, perhaps a an OCZ StealthXStream (I've been doing my research) or some such.

I am really not sure about the graphics card, and this is the real problem. As I say, I don't want to go mad - I don't really need top end, just something that will run BiA HH happily. From what I've seen, I figure around about £100 as a budget for the card, but I'm faced with such an array of possibilities. XFX Nvidia of some sort looks favourite, but only because I gather that XFX is a reliable brand; I am unsure of others.

Oh yes: I'd like to keep the job as technically simple as possible!

Does anyone have any advice, bearing in mind the above - PSU and suitable Graphics Card? I'd really appreciate any sound advice!

Thanks and all the best

For the price and the two games you mentioned my suggestion would be to find the best price where you're at for either a 3870, 9600GT or 9800GT. All three will play both games smooth at max settings and won't require an expensive PSU, 500-550 watt is more than enough.

Thanks for the reply - I'd been leaning towards a 8800 or 8600 - do you think that would cope?

You're probably stuck with the PSU that you already have. Unless Dell has changed their PC format in the past 6 months, their PSU's are proprietary. This means that you cannot install a standard 20/22 pin PSU in a Dell box.

FYI... I have an nVidia 8800GTX and it works fine. Read the system requirements in the post at the top of thses forums and see if your PC will handle any of the cards.

Phew! That gave me a start - hadn't even thought about proprietary PSUs! However, you made me check on the Dell web site forums and it looks like I'm OK - the 5150's PSU is changeable. Just as well, as I ordered the new PSU late last night! Thanks for the pointer, though - much appreciated.