How can i tell what harware my computer has in it and what I need to upgrade?

I have a computer that a buddy of mine built for me about 5years ago. At the time it was pretty quick and handled almost everything I threw at it. The power supply just blew so I've been thinking about upgrading it. The thing is I no longer talk to that friend and I personally know very little about computers. What is considered a decent all around setup for some light gaming and college needs?





Thanks for the help.

How can i tell what harware my computer has in it and what I need to upgrade?
well the computer are built by certain components:


Mother board + CPU + cpu fan


power supply


memory sticks


video card


hard drive


DVD or cd rom


and the tower.


what you should do is upgrade the memory, the video card for gaming. and if you want more space you will need a bigger hard drive, but beware that you will need to reinstalled xp or vista on that new hard drive. but for now just upgrade the memory and video card, and get a new power supply about a 500W one, because the better the video card the more power it will need.


hope this helps
Reply:If you need help contact me on email and give me your msn or another IM you have and i give you step by step help on it as its hard to talk in emails
Reply:What you need to upgrade depends on what you have, and what you want. If you have Windows XP, then go into Help and Support (on the start menu), click "Computer Information, click "Tools" (bottom-left) and click "My Computer Information (left navigation box). The page that comes up gives you links to almost everything about your computer.

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