[fretway]

i already own a dell dimension 4600 series. windows XP pentium 4, 2.4 ghz with 256 ram.
What should i be upgrading? i am somwhat a gamer and have problems playing new games.

[Mavirick]

first of all, systems made by retailers like dell, gateway, etc. are not made to be upgraded [they'd rather you buy a new machine from them, of course] and are therefore harder to do so.

however, if your determined to have it done, and you want it for gaming, your going to want at LEAST 1gb of RAM, DDR2 if your computer supports it. i would suggest two 512mb sticks in tandem in addition to the 256mb you all ready have. with that, your cpu should be all right. the only other thing you want to have in order to run games well is a good video card, which you didn't mention. you'l want at least 128mb of onboard memory on your vidcard - 256mb is even better.

again, upgrading manufactured computers like those from dell is a hassle. one i avoid if at all possible.

[gotrootdude]

Dell machines are not built to be upgraded. The first and only upgrade you should perform is upgrading the memory to at least 512mb.

After that, due to the age of the machine, the limited Dell power supply, the slow hard drive, etc. It'd be best not to upgrade that one any further, as it'd be cheaper to just get a new machine that's not built by a mass merchant, or build one yourself using advise from this forum.

[NeVeRReSt]

Dude?, post some more of your specs and dont be lazy just like my answer!

[stecks]

True True about Dell's when I use to have one I thought about installing a video card and well that was PCI card and that just slowed my system right down to almost a dead stop all I was able to do was sucessfully install more memory and that's when you could install memory that was PC 133. And then the PSU was on the blink and that's when it was to be TOSSED and it was since then I refuse to get back towards another Dell.. HAHAHA all I kept was the Dell mouse pad and even that is in rough condition now.

[fretway]

how about this. if i take my midsized tower gut it and rebuild from there, or would it be better to just buy a new tower and start from there

[stecks]

Start a new build that's what I did... All I used from my old systems was the HD that I bought for an upgrade (a 160gig) and my DVD burner that I had in my previous machine.

[fretway]

Its easy enough to build? never built before but heard it pays off...