[brettt777]

I have a 2 year old Dell XPS710 that has a 2.1ghz duo core CPU, 2gb of DDR2(?), an nVidia 8600GTS and running 32 bit XP. I know I need to upgrade the video card and I need more RAM (remember when we thought 64mb of RAM was alot?). I would love to just get a whole new system but not sure when or if I will be able to do that so I need to look at some upgrades.
My questions are:
Can I upgrade to a 64 bit OS just by installing say, Windows 7 64 bit (which I have heard good things about) or do I need a whole different MB/CPU?
I have heard that it is best to run at least 6GB of RAM with Windows 7. Can my exisiting MB go that high on RAM and will it do DDR3?
I know my existing video card is PCI express; are the newer ones something else and will my MB do that?

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Your system still looks pretty decent for Windows 7 64 clean install (you can't upgrade 32-bit to 64-bit, and you can't upgrade from XP to 7 anyway).

I have heard that it is best to run at least 6GB of RAM with Windows 7

This is false. Win 7, like Vista will do fine with 2GB of RAM.
Surely, if you want to go with 64-bit, you may want to take advantage of installing more RAM, however your Dell will max out at 4GB: http://www.crucial.c...x?model=XPS 710

[Broni]

Your system still looks pretty decent for Windows 7 64 clean install (you can't upgrade 32-bit to 64-bit, and you can't upgrade from XP to 7 anyway).

I have heard that it is best to run at least 6GB of RAM with Windows 7

This is false. Win 7, like Vista will do fine with 2GB of RAM.
Surely, if you want to go with 64-bit, you may want to take advantage of installing more RAM, however your Dell will max out at 4GB: http://www.crucial.c...x?model=XPS 710