RAM - pc dunce trying to upgrate, in need of help

hi - i'd like to upgrade my RAM, but know nothing about the internal wizardry of the pc. so basically i'm petitioning for help to recommend a compatible RAM chip(s).

my pc is a readybuilt Dell Dimension DXP061 with an Intel Core(TM)2 CPU 6300 @ 1.86GHz 1.86GHz and 2046 MB RAM running Vista home premium 32.

I'd like to upgrade to 3 or 4 GB of ram as Vista apparently hogs quite a bit, and i like playing high-spec games as smoothly as possible.

if anyone could suggest a specific model and brand that's compatible with my system, i'd really appreciate it.

thanks for any suggestions

If you want 4GB you need Vista 64-bit as 32-bit OS will read about 3.75GB or 3.25GB of the RAM

Having some issues trying to find the model's motherboard for your Dell but I would suppose its either PC-6400 or PC-5300

A few points:

1: For gaming, your RAM is the last thing that needs upgrading, even if you're using Vista. Your graphics card is the most important thing when it comes to gaming, and I'm willing to bet you don't have a very good card.

2: Your CPU is a bit slow as well - not terribly though, I wouldn't worry about it. It's just that the only reason the E6300 was popular at all was its overclocking ability, it wasn't hugely impressive at stock speeds.

3: Pretty much any DDR2 type RAM will work just fine - make sure you have the free slots to install more RAM, but that's about it.

does the 'ACPI x86-based PC' refer to my motherboard type? if not i could anly answer the first query with instructions on how to list my motherboard.

replying to the second message, i have an NVidia 8800 GTX graphics card. the guy who sold me the PC recommended it as being good for gaming, so even though it was pretty expensive i though it sounded like an important piece of hardware.

if my CPU is a little slow, should this take priority over the RAM for the next upgrade?

regarding the free slots for RAM, there appear to be 2 sets of 2 RAM slots, which are currenly all filled, so rather than adding more chips, i guess i will have to exchange at least one 256 MB chip for a bigger one BUT it sounds like from the previous comments that i need Vista 64 to run extra RAM? hmmm, so for the best (gaming) performace boost, do i: (1) upgrade the mother board, (2) upgrade the RAM to 3GB?, (3) upgrade the RAM to 4 GB AND the OS to Vista 64, or (4) none of the above?

not sure if Vista 32 would be able to use 3 GB, or if upgrading to Vista 64 might affect game compatibility....

as you can tell, i'm pretty confused, can anyone suggest which bit to upgrade and to what?

many thanks for your time and opinions