thanks for the advice that's great to hear that quad cores are basically future proofed for the next few years (how long until games use higher than quad, and I'll have to upgrade if I buy now?)

so are those integrated cards (video and motherboard) just as good as the top line video cards? I assume that's a way of saving money by buying one card instead of video and motherboard, or should I stay away from them?

since i don't want to build my own comp, is it ok to buy the parts from newegg (or is there a better place?), then have GeekSquad build the comp? will they give a warranty on it? also, is having a large harddrive important to the graphics in a game? I'm just wondering how to save money by perhaps not having a huge harddrive or skimping on other parts, but having a good video card and CPU

lastly, how much and what kind of memory should I get?

If I get a new computer in a year, how much better would it be than one i can get now in terms of graphics?

Is it really worthwhile to wait (even it will be cheaper) if games haven't even caught up to quad core, much less what may exist in a year (8 or 16 core)? when will most or at least many games be as good graphically as Crysis?

when will a lot of games use quad core to its full capacity and how much better will those games look using quad core and Dx10? PC Gamer showed their high end computer as a 3000.00 dollar comp: intel core 2 extreme QX9580 with 2 geforce 880 GTX video cards and 150 GB western digital 1TB (how important is a big harddrive for graphics?). how much would that comp be in a year's time approx?

one more thing I'm confused by these integrated card - can you get a quad core - motherboard - video card all together and is this a good idea? thanks