[T3Kmitch]

You can get 8500's for less than $100 on Newegg.. I'd spend around $200ish on my video card. The computer I'm on right now runs things pretty well (in BF2 once I load in it runs good, its the "Verifying Client Data" that takes forever, it actually loads the map in 45 secondsish if I remember right). This pc used to have a cheap x300se in it, all I did was buy a x800gto (back when it was still $200) and it ran everything 300% better than that x300 did. Unless you plan on having a monitor with a low resolution, I wouldn't skimp on a graphics card. When you run high resolutions the graphics card does more work, when you run low resolution the CPU takes more of the load. I'd also go dual core simply because it's a fairly cheap upgrade and they're already starting to become the "norm" in new computers.

For buying individual parts look at Newegg, there are many customer reviews for almost all of their items so you'll know the performance of it before you even buy it. I've just always been under the impression that under the _600 for nVidia is a cheaper budget card, not gaming card. (Ex: 7600 vs 7300, 8600 or 8800 vs 8500) T3Kjoe has an 8600gts I believe, if you xfire him you could see how that performs.

You can get away with little things like that for now, but when newer games start coming out you're going to have to start upgrading, which can be more costly than just spending a little bit more in the beginning.

Edit: T3Kjoe has an 8800gts nvm that part.