My Curret PC has the following specs:AMD Athlon XP 3200+, 2200 MHz,512 MB Ram, NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200



150GB Hard Drive and i have an NTFS file system (if you needed that)

It is a home pc that is mainly IE browsing / storage of music. films ect and games. I dont play any shooters / racing games that require rapid FPS but often system draining strategy games that have tons of units on screen or games that have huge databases (football manager ect)

If you're just looking for a bit more performance out of what you've already got, then another stick of RAM is the easiest solution. Just be sure to get a stick that is of the same type as what is already installed for the best results. Judging by the specs you've mentioned I'm betting you've got DDR right now, so you just need to find the speed.

Open up the case and have a look inside. you might be able to see the label on the stick without having to remove it. You're looking for something along the lines of "DDR 400" or "PC3200" which indicate the speed.

If you can't see the tag then you're going to have to take it out. So:

1. Turn off the power.

2. Touch the metal of your case to discharge any static you might has built up.

3. Press down on the little tabs on either side of the RAM slot simultaneously. You might have to press them a bit hard, but the RAM should pop up in the slot and be easily removable. It's also best to turn your case on its side so you can work down onto the components from above so you don't have to worry about the case tipping over.

4. When removing and handling your RAM try to handle it by the edges, and avoid touching the metal contact pins as much as possible.

I really reccommend against taking the RAM with you to the store unless you have an anti-static bag to carry it in. I've seen some very well-meaning folks ruin perfectly good RAM by putting it in a plastic grocery bag [very staticky] or straight into their pocket.

After all that installing the RAM is pretty much the same process in reverse, just be sure to match up the notch in the pins with the little nubby-thing inside the RAM slot. And if you've never installed RAM before... yeah, you've really got to push on it to get it in sometimes.

And that, my friend, is what people sometimes pay technicians upwards of $40 to do. Put a stick in a slot. What you really need to know is what most common speed for ddr now is 400mhz and as for the processor AMD has a slightly different way of calulating their clock speed e.g. I have an AMD 3800+ but the actual clock speed is 2.4 ghz