Clueless Newbie in need of Plain English and Patience

boxley

New Member
Due to a distinct lack of funds and the death of my PC I have recently acquired my brothers old Advent computer. This operates to a reasonable standard but I am having an issue with the graphic card. It is overheating as it has no fan and the thermal paste has dried out. I want to deal with this as it is currently emitting heat of 85 degrees Celsius. Rather than trying to get the same outdated model I was thinking of upgrading but don't know where to start as I have been told that over powerful graphic cards can destroy both the power supply and motherboard? I have installed Speccy and have the following info on my system:

Operating System:
Microsoft Windows XP Professional 32-bit SP2

CPU:
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 @ 1.86GHz 48 °C
Conroe 65nm Technology

RAM:
1.00 GB Single-Channel DDR2 @ 265MHz (4-4-4-12)

Motherboard:
MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD MS-7255 (Socket 775) 37 °C

Graphics:
Plug and Play Monitor (1024x768@75Hz)
512MB 2 (Sapphire/PCPartner) 85 °C

Hard Drives:
233GB Western Digital WDC WD2500JS-00NCB1 (SATA) 37 °C

Optical Drives:
HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GSA-H20N

Audio:
Medion SAA7131, Hybrid Capture Device

If anybody could give me some recommendations on upgrades I'd be eternally grateful. should any further info be required, please ask but you may have to tell me where to find it :o
 
Could probably pick up a cheap gt430 or 620, id also suggest grabbing another stick of ddr 2 to run in dual channel.
 
Thanks for your help!

My current graphic card is a Sapphire HD 3650 512M DDR2 Dual DVI AGP. I don't have a problem paying for a (cheap) replacement, but would prefer an alternative model with a fan. I just want to make sure I don't buy something incompatible with the rest of my hardware. Would the gt430 or 620 fit the bill? TBH I don't trust myself to make repairs to the current card without breaking it!

The computer is used for some gaming activity. Mostly Sims 3 with expansions. I had realised I would probably need to update the RAM because it was running so slowly.
 
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