I just installed a new NVIDIA GTS 250 card in my system, to be able to play some of the more recent and upcoming games and I'm just wondering if I should alter anything else.

I don't want to upgrade anything else unless it is necessary/recommended. That being said, I want to know if the new video card needs any better support around it to ensure it doesn't push the system beyond what it can handle. I'm thinking the extra power it's drawing may need a better PSU? And consequently, another cooling fan to dissipate heat? It currently has 2 of the PSU's aux cables plugged to its 6-pin connector.

I'm on a 500W PSU at the moment. EVEREST tells me the mobo and HDD sit at around the high 30s in temperature, reaching a max of mid 40s. The video card sits at around the mid to high 50s, reaching a max of low 70s during a graphically heavy game.

Some details:

Core2Duo E7400 2.80 GHz
2GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 1GB
500GB Seagate HDD
500W PSU

So should I make any changes? Or anything I should keep an eye on?
There haven't been any problems - this is just a precaution

Also, I'm currently on an old 4:3 monitor at 1280x1024, which I do plan to replace with a 1440x990 one. Will that require more power? Or would it be negligible?

The new monitor will stress the video card more which may or may not be a problem with your PSU. What make is it?

Everything looks good to me...

I'll have to check the PSU make; it does get pretty hot to the touch - are there any freeware programs that can measure the PSU temperature? Or is it in EVEREST somewhere?

The PSU would be my only concern it seems; that and cooling - are there recommended/safe temperature ranges for various components at (idle and loaded)? Or is entirely dependent on the your own specific setup?

Usually you won't have to worry about how hot the PSU is going to get - it will get pretty hot. Everest should have it built in and there are a few other good programs to monitor this AS LONG as your motherboard supports readings for the PSU. Overall, PSU temps generally aren't something you have to worry about.

That video card should be more than adequate for running current games on a 1680x1050 monitor, you may even invest in a monitor that will push 1920x1080 or 1920x1200, it never hurts to have a few more display modes to play around with, and It would likely run those too... although you'd probably have to turn off things like anti aliasing.

The first thing I would do if I were you is overclock!

Reason   said:

Lies!

1280x1024 has more pixels overall, although the difference is negligible.

Thanks for the advice everyone!

To that videocard you can add 380GTX (when it comes out pretty soon here) and use the GTX as physics processing card, while your gts will be rendering all the awsum gfx.

That would make all these HWA guys cry, quite literally.

Nice looking system Watcher.