Ok what is the best video card on the market for gaming??? Is it ATI Or Invidea?? PCI or AGP?? Also what is the best memory,,, I have cosair is that good ram??? I got it only because i found a gig of it for $129... I have built this system for gaming and it does ok just not as good as i thought it would for what i put in it and the money that i spent on it.... i have Pentium4 presscott at 3.0 ghrz./ 1 gig of corsair ram/ 160 gig 7200 rpm hard drive/ powercolor 9250 256 meg AGP video card/ thermalake xaserIII 480 watt psu with 550 peek/ and 3 cases fans [the system runs very cool] ALL THIS AND IT STILL LOCKS UP ON ME IT FREEZES SOLID AND I HAVE TO RE-BOOT!!!!

Hi
the problem is you have a good pc except the powercolor 9250 256 meg AGP video card, not for current games.
its a 50$ low ender,
look here and choose one to suit your budget,

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041004/vga_charts-04.html
the higher the number the better.

pci-e or agp it doesnt matter at the moment
nor does it matter Ati or Nvidea.
thats just mobo preference and branding.
go for pci only if you have the slot present on your mobo.
a good mid range card = nvidea 5950 or
6600gt.

check out some benchmark scores other sites have to give you some idea whats hot & whats not.
:)

"the higher the number the better"

That's generally true, but not always.

If you go with ATI, make sure the model number is 9500 or higher. Cards with lower numbers don't support DX9. If you go with nVidia, their DX9 compatible cards started with the FX series...it's best to avoid the FX5200 though.

Beware "tag letters" like LE, SE, VE, MX. "XT" is an oddball...ATI uses XT for it's better card in a series. For instance, the 9600XT is better than the 9600 or 9600 Pro. nVidia uses XT for it's lower end card in a series...the FX5900 XT is not as good as the 5900 or 5900 Ultra.

I agree with 1stepbeyond...the 9250 is NOT a very good gaming card. But the video card has nothing to do with your locking up issue.

Corsair is a good brand name, but you might wanna try testing the RAM, just in case. Use memtest86 v3.2. Download the Windows/DOS version, unzip & click on INSTALL.BAT...follow the instructions to insert a floppy. The program will be copied to the disk & it will be made bootable. Then just boot off the floppy & let it run at least one series of tests. If you get any errors, replace the RAM. You may wanna test one stick at a time.

http://www.memtest86.com

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