Please help the PC newbie (me)

Ok ive always wanted to get into pc games (shooters mostly)but i never really knew where to start--now i decided to start--i went to gamespot's little hardware page and it isn't too helpful so i was wondering if anyone can help me with some of my questions

first--this is what i have on my pc now--i play no games on the pc btw so i dont know if this is good or bad or what so maybe someone can help me--i have Amd athlon 64 X2 dual core processor 4200+ 2.20GHz, a gig of ram, 250 gig hard-drive, a Nvidia geforce6150 LE, windows vista and i assume direct x 10?--is this a good upgradable system or should i get a new one specificially for gameing

second--i have 800 bucks that i can completely blow on this without worrying about it and maybe another 200-300 if i neglect my guitar addiction for a bit--is that enough to get going? i really dont want a second rate system i'd like something fairly powerful

last--what do i need to make unreal tournament 3 run nicely? because thats the real reason i cant stay away from pc's anymore--i played 2004 on my friends pc more than he did and i just love the franchise so i need my unreal

thanks in advance

well you can do alot with $800. I would suggest a 8800 GT from eVGA for their warranty and the step up program. Maybe another gig of ram or something like that. Your processor is not bad so you wouldnt have to upgrade that really. So the best thing you could do was get a new video card as i think what you have right now is intergrated graphics. KillaFrobert

Overclocking, in a very general sense, means changing motherboard settings to allow you to run your cpu, ram, bus, etc. at a higher speed then what they were "built" for. Because of the way PC hardware is manufactured and marketted, higher then advertised speeds are almost always possible, but usually only incrementally better. There are exceptions, but the details aren't important to this discussion. If you're new to performance computing, don't worry about it; overclocking has enough risks that it should only be ventured by those who are confident in what they are doing.

As far as your system is concerned, an Nvidia 8800GT and another gig of ram would be my recommendation as well, and that should be within your budget.

Overclocking, in a very general sense, means changing motherboard settings to allow you to run your cpu, ram, bus, etc. at a higher speed then what they were "built" for. Because of the way PC hardware is manufactured and marketted, higher then advertised speeds are almost always possible, but usually only incrementally better. There are exceptions, but the details aren't important to this discussion. If you're new to performance computing, don't worry about it; overclocking has enough risks that it should only be ventured by those who are confident in what they are doing.

As far as your system is concerned, an Nvidia 8800GT and another gig of ram would be my recommendation as well, and that should be within your budget.

nwilde

Ya check out your power supply Watts, 500watts will do you just fine.