Reddit reviews Corsair CMV8GX3M2A1333C9 ValueSelect 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3-1333 (PC3-10666) 1.5V Desktop Memory

Your motherboard has a total of two DIMM slots, so the 2x2GB kit won't do so well unless your games are pretty light on resources. Eh, you could try it and see what happens. 4GB isn't too bad, but it depends on your games and usage.

From what I can tell, the mobo can only support 1333MHz RAM. However, as you do have two slots, dual-channel isn't much more and should give a healthy boost to bandwidth.

This seems like the cheapest reliable option: https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-ValueSelect-DDR3-1333-PC3-10666-Desktop/dp/B0055LGG3Y/ref=sr_1_10?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1509835700&sr=1-10&keywords=DDR3+1333+8GB

https://www.amazon.com/Kingston-HyperX-FURY-2x4GB-1333MHz/dp/B00J8E912M/ref=sr_1_6?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1509835700&sr=1-6&keywords=DDR3+1333+8GB

The second is $10 for a blue heatsink (purely aesthetic). 16GB is definitely doable, but RAM prices (even for DDR3) aren't cheap. :(

That is, you'd be spending nearly 30 to 40% of your system's net worth on RAM when your CPU or GPU will be bottlenecking you first on games. That is, the amount of multitasking needed to take advantage of 16GB of RAM....still won't be possible in your build due to the dual-core CPU.

Out of curiosity, how did you diagnose the current RAM as faulty?

Thank you very much for your reply and the help given! May I ask one final question?: Would Corsair CMV8GX3M2A1333C9 RAM be suitable? I'm unable to purchase from DMS and macsales (not from US). http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-CMV8GX3M2A1333C9-Select-Mainstream-Desktop/dp/B0055LGG3Y

The specs are the same as the links you pasted:

8GB Kit (2 x 4 GB) DDR3 DIMM
1333MHz
9-9-9-24 latency
1.5V

Would this work? Thanks again

I'm not entirely certain. I would expect the motherboard to clock down the ram to 1333mhz, but I haven't tried it, so I could definitely be wrong. I suggest playing it safe and getting this RAM instead.

EDIT: Or this RAM.

Okay, to match it, you'll need 1333MHz DDR3 with a CAS latency of 9. Faster usually works too if it's cheaper.

This would be fine http://www.amazon.fr/Corsair-M%C3%A9moire-RAM-DDR3-1333/dp/B0055LGG3Y/ref=sr_1_4?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1450761478&sr=1-4&keywords=ddr3+1333+8go

According to your PC specs, you have 4 ram slots and only 2 should be occupied atm. It's DDR3 style RAM so it's super cheap.

I'll edit with a link to something that should work. Here

Sorry, I was making things too complicated.

The processor you have in that current PC (the i5-2300) will still be great for a lot of games - it's not the fastest on the market, but it's still perfectly competent for gaming with, and in order to replace it with a brand new processor you'd probably need to replace not just the CPU but the motherboard and the case as well - and you'd not be getting a massive amount of performance increase for the money, either (you'd be looking at spending £200-300 on that alone, and wouldn't see that much improvement)

Your best bet, given that it seems you're not comfortable with doing much work on the PC (which is fine, it can be pretty daunting) would be to buy a graphics card like the 750ti:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/EVGA-1176MHz-1255MHz-5400MHz-Graphics/dp/B00IGQ4Z3S/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

And replace the existing 530 that's already in there with it. It's not the fastest card, but it

a) Doesn't require any external power connectors (you just put it in the slot and it works)

b) Doesn't draw much more power than the 530, so you won't need to replace anything else, just take out the old card and slot the new one in!

c) will manage plenty of modern games at medium-high settings

The only other thing I'd recommend (but this isn't even necessary, just nice to have for making the PC a bit smoother & you can just not do it at all) would be to buy some more RAM and slot that in too:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-CMV8GX3M2A1333C9-Select-Mainstream-Desktop/dp/B0055LGG3Y/ref=sr_1_4?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1414955335&sr=1-4&keywords=corsair+value+ram

You can easily find videos on youtube of how to replace RAM and how to install a 750ti - if you read the reviews of the 750ti everyone mentions how easy it was to replace it despite being apprehensive about it, and how much it improved gaming performance.

I guarantee that installing a 750ti will give you identical gaming performance to buying a whole brand new PC at that budget and you'll save most of that £500 while you're at it.