Upgrade Advice for my system

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Cheeseking25

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Hi. I am looking to upgrade my system to have better performance in today's more demanding games and in future games. First off let me say I DO NOT want to buy a new mobo or a new comp. These are my specs:

System Info
Model : Dell Dimension XPS 400/9150
Chassis Type : Tower
Operating System : Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition Professional Service Pack 2 (Build 2600)

Processor
Number Of Processors : 1 Hyper-Threading Enabled
Type : Intel Pentium D 820 2800 MHz (2.8 GHz)
Processors Bus Speed : 800 MHz

Motherboard
Manufacturer : Dell Inc.
Model : 0YC523 Rev. Not Available
CPU Slot/Socket Type : Socket 775 LGA
Chipset Vendor : Intel i945P/PL/G/GZ Rev. 00
Bios Manufacturer : Dell Inc.
Bios Version : A07
PSU: 375W

Graphics
Model : nVidia PCIE NVIDIA GeForce 6800 256MB @ 325 MHz
PCIE Speed : 16x
Monitor : Plug and Play Monitor

Storage
Hard Drive 1 : Maxtor 7 L250S0
Size : 238.42 GB

Memory
Total RAM Installed : 2048 MB @ 667 Mhz
Type : DDR2 Regular UDIMM PC4300
Used RAM Slots: 4 of 4


I am looking to upgrade my CPU and my GPU but if there are any other important upgrades it looks like I should make please tell me.

I'm not sure if I can upgrade my CPU to a Core 2 Duo. I have socket 775 LGA but I dont think my mobo is compatable. If I can't upgrade to Core 2 Duo should I upgrade to a higher Pentium D? Will a CPU upgrade help a lot?

For my GPU, I want to upgrade to something like a 8800GTS (GTX is too expensive). What are the differences (performance-wise) between the 320MB and 640MB 8800GTS's? Is it worth it to wait for the 9800GTS? Will a GPU upgrade help significantly more than a CPU upgrade?

I appreciate any help you can give me. I am also looking for a new monitor (20" widescreen-24" widescreen range). If there are any good monitors (preferably cheap) that you can reccomend please do. Thanks for any help you can give me.
 
my dad has an intel PD 945 and it works pretty well for gaming and work related things, i would suggest that because i doubt your board supports core 2

for a video card an 8800GTS 320 is a very good card at a cheap price

BUT you PSU may not be able to handle that and from what ive seen Dell use proprietary PSU so you cant replace them
 
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