Looking to upgrade, any recommendations?

[Tizoc_30]

My current rig has held up fairly well for the past 3 years and was built pretty cheaply. I'm mostly interested in future-proofing my rig, as in, I won't have to upgrade for as long as possible while simultaneously being able to maintain a general <=60FPS running the lowest settings.

Currently I'm running;

OS: Win7 Ult 32-bit

CPU: AMD Athlon IIx4 620 ~ 2.6Ghz

Mobo: Asus M4A785-M

GPU: ATI Radeon HD 3800 series

PSU: Low quality 450w

RAM: 2gb Kingston DDR x2

I'm looking for a budget price GPU upgrade, but I'm assuming almost anything will require a PSU improvement also.
Thank you in advance, I appreciate any advice given.

As to a price range, I'd be hoping not to spend more then $200, and I've been browsing NewEgg/TigerDirect for the past few days.

 

[dudewitbow]

spend 50$ on a quality psu, and 150 on a gpu. since you already have a computer, may i suggest you buy an antec earthwatts 430w bronze cert(although lower in watts, it is of high quality for its cost of currently 40$) and reuse your power cord. afterword you can use the rest of the money(160$~) to buy a gpu, which is just in line for a 6870 if you can fit it in your case. Though, i may recommend you bring it down to a 6850 and use the rest of the money to buy yourself some ram sticks to stick it to 4 gb

 

[Tizoc_30]

Thanks for the advice! So with the 6870 the 430w should be fine? Currently I'm not running any DvD/CD drives or really anything outside of barebones.

This is my case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146069

Dim: 20.6" x 18.1" x 8.1"

As to 6870, I'm not really knowledgable about how GPU's are named, are cards manufactured by multiple companies?
So assuming this is the 6870 you are recommending;

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102948&nm_mc=OTC-Froogle&cm_mmc=OTC-Froogle-_-Video+Cards-_-Sapphire+Tech-_-14102948

I'm not finding dimensions for the card though.

 

[dudewitbow]

Thanks for the advice! So with the 6870 the 430w should be fine? Currently I'm not running any DvD/CD drives or really anything outside of barebones.

This is my case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146069

Dim: 20.6" x 18.1" x 8.1"

As to 6870, I'm not really knowledgable about how GPU's are named, are cards manufactured by multiple companies?
So assuming this is the 6870 you are recommending;

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102948&nm_mc=OTC-Froogle&cm_mmc=OTC-Froogle-_-Video+Cards-_-Sapphire+Tech-_-14102948

I'm not finding dimensions for the card though.

if you need a build which utilized the psu and the gpu in a build, refer to tomhardwares 600$ december 2011 build. as for the card dimensions, its just something newegg didnt put up. your going to need to find the dimensions on another page, although sapphire in general usually has smaller dimensions than the other AMD gpu manufacturing companies.

also note that you will be using one of the 4 pin molex to 6 pin convertors the gpu will give you, because the 6870 requires 2 6 pin connectors while the psu gives 1

 

[Tizoc_30]

Nevermind, a quick Google search answered my question just fine. Going on you're advice I think I'll purchase the PSU and Radeon HD 6870.

I'm still not sure why I should upgrade my RAM, I figured 4gigs was enough, or is it more about the quality of the RAM? Kinda the same question with maintaining roughly similar PSU Watt, would it be better to just get a higher PSUw for future proofing?