I have had new cards in the system, the cpu's accepted are anything from a athlon x2 to the phenoms, only problem is I do not know if I can stick 8gb in this system. I believe if my memory serves me right have had 8gb in it. But hit hard times about a year ago and had to sell off everything in my system because it was all not stock. I have a phenom II x4 965, 8gb ram, a gtx 970 and a 600 watt psu. If memory serves right it was 8gb but may have been 4gb. I do know it is DDR3 1333mhz rated ram.