Dell Studio 540 upgrade ?

The Studio 540 desktop (not the Studio 540 Slim Desktop) shipped with a 350w power supply. So without changing the power supply, the Studio 540 desktop could use several mid level PCIe x16 2.0 video cards. Start by searching on newegg but be sure to check the power supply usage for the video card.

a 1GB Nvidia or Radeon Graphics card with the 8GB RAM would work for the mean time but you will have to consider changing the processor and motherboard once you get your budget. but you still wouldnt be able to play these latest games. probably games up till 2014 would work fine.

https://www.asus.com/Graphics-Cards/EAH6450_SILENTDI1GD3LP/

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA24G4R56341

The SLACR Q6600 works fine on the studio 540 afaikt.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00SKXQ7NI/ref=dp_olp_all_mbc?ie=UTF8&condition=all

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/desktop/f/3515/t/19428781

If the budget allows better cards are out there like the GTX 1050TI

https://www.amazon.com/ZOTAC-GeForce-DisplayPort-128-bit-ZT-P10510A-10L/dp/B01MCU1ERO/

The INTEL G45 chipset and Dell Spec is 8 Gigs max.  DDR2 ram for 16 gigs is not an option.

WHD20-DD3  Targeted Read Test Failed
WHD16-KZB Smart Short Self Test Failed

There are 4 slots and 2 gigs x 4 =8.  SPEEDFAN and HWMONITOR are not supported and give false readings.

There are only 3 manufacturers of drives left in the world.

Seagate, Western Digital, and Toshiba.

I recommend western digital blue or green. 

Easy to find on Amazon or in stores like staples, office depot, best buy etc.

https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Desktop-Hard-Disk-Drive/dp/B013QFRS2S/

Thank you all for your help and replies, just wanted to update a few things-

The PSU went out on it a few hours after making this thread, so I went and got a 480w Antec PSU for $20, it seems to work fine at the moment.

So while I was it it, I ran the SupportAssist checkup which showed the harddrive is going out as well, are there any 1tb or 2tb drive for this model?

And speed fan is showing a most of the processors are burning up! lol  I probably need to clean the fans or mod the case to cool it down, suggestions?

Oh an RAM wise, it says I have installed 6gb of 16gb supported memory... does that mean I could get some 4x4 sticks?

Umm, oh, GPU wise a friend gave me a Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 and said it would probably work in it, but Im not sure... thoughts?

a 1GB Nvidia or Radeon Graphics card with the 8GB RAM would work for the mean time but you will have to consider changing the processor and motherboard once you get your budget.