I’m curious about how good my system is as a gaming pc. The specs are below.

AMD Phenom 9600 Quad Core
3 GB Ram
XFX 8800 GS
350 Watt PSU
3 Fans (keeps my system at about 48 degress celcius when gaming for long sessions)
740 gigs worth of HDD
32-bit Vista Home Premium

What are some cheap things I can do to improve my system? I was thinking my PSU is too small and maybe affecting my system’s performance?

*Currently I'm playing Fallout 3 on High with no problems, I am able to run CSS and TF2 with no problem also*

PSUs only affect performance by causing BSODs, crashes or spontaneous restarts. A good-quality 350W PSU will power that system easily, so unless the PSU is of so-so quality, I wouldn't be worried. Giving us the brand and model will help us judge better. Also, what resolution do you game at?

The best thing to improve gaming perfomance on your current PC is to get a new video card. Next comes a faster HDD.

hmm


u should try wat rage said

but i my self would recommend a 500 watt for starters just to see if it works out for u

but also id look in to current drivers for your hardware for shits and kicks to see if that would work to

I play at 1440x900. It all runs fine. I updated my driver on my gfx card. What else can I update on?

sata/ide drivers and any other mobo drivers

never know

u might also wanna try

1024 by 768

or

1152 by 864

it might not look as good but it'll improve on performance a lil

A new video card would mean a new PSU. So better look into that before you buy your next card.

@omegafate, do you mean firmware? Yes, a firmware upgrade would be good.

I know how to do the basic driver updates. How do I go about firmware updates?

Firmware upgrades are similar to driver updates. You just download the installer, let it run and reboot if required. But firmware upgrades are permanent and do not need to be done even if you use that particular component in another system, unless there's another firmware upgrade available.

lol yea kinda forgot the terminology lol