I was going to buy a new gaming PC amongst other things but my christmas shopping and presents went way over the limit so I'm looking to cut back. I was thinking and I figured the PC I have now isn't too bad and could be used as a pretty good gaming pc that can run the current games at mid video setting. I will buy a new video card and some more ram but I was wondering if I can get some opinions if this is worth using as a gaming PC for now or if I should just wait till I have the money.

CPU - AMD Athlon x2  4400+

RAM - Will upgrade and eventually have 3 GB PC5300 667 MHZ

Video - Will buy Nvidia 9800GT or ATI 4870, havent decided yet.

Mobo - middle of the road Asus with 2000 system bus

Does anyone have similar specs? can you run Crysis? :)

i got a dual core intel proccessor and nvidia 7900 graphics with 2gb of RAM and i can run crisis fine at second highest graphics

 That's a terrific upgrade plan!

I have an AMD Athlon X2 6000+ with a Radeon 4850 and a 24 inch screen with 1920x1200 and all new games except Gta4 and Crysis I do on max settings with that res (usually 4xAA).

Your CPU is fine feeding your future GPU weather it's a 9800GT or a 4870 - no matter what ppl mite say.

I'm very happy with performance in Crysis Warhead - "gamer settings" (which is the 2nd highest) and even 2xAA running with my screens native res of1920x1200 n gives me rufly 25FPS*.

Far Cry 2 etc with everything maxed runs like a dream.

EDIT*: With those settings I get 25FPS on average if I'm just roaming the country-side by foot, but if I drive a vehicle fast or get into some heavy shooting action I get FPS drops down to 15-20.

You should go for 800 Mhz RAM, not 667.

And pick the Radeon 4870, leagues better than the GeForce.

And yes, it's a kickass system.

Thanks guys. Sounds like this is a go. One gets a little scared with all these news stories how PCs need to be super computers to run these latest games so I wanted to be sure.

@fazz
My system already has 1 gig of 667 ram. I figured id buy 2 more gigs of same speed rather than throw it out or buy the faster ones and have them run at same speed as my 1 gig anyways. That plan no good?

 Yes it is. Speed of RAM is only useful if you're gonna heavily over-clock the CPU, but then you need new fans anyway.

this PC could somewhat run crysis but cant run Left4Dead....

Do this, screw the expensive as hell video card. 200+ for a GPU... not if your aiming for a balanced PC.

CPU - Athlon 7750

CPU Heatsink - Zalmon 110mm or if that wont fit Zalmon 92mm

GPU - 9600GT

Mobo - Gigabyte Mobo

RAM - 2GB DDR2 1066 +  1GB

there now you will be able to run things well

^ Wait, how would it not be able to run L4D? O_o

Like so many other ppl, ssj12 seems to be buying into the CPU myth.

With his rig ((that suggests over-clocking an already quite strong CPU) the GPU instead becomes relatively under-powered. The 9600GT is a decent card if you love Nvidia, but better bang for the buck is of course the 4850.

How much is the 4870 in the states?

my 4600+ is 300MHz to week for L4D to run well (I lag quite a bit and its all CPU related lag). Even YouGamer suggests the 5600+ which why get that when the 7750BE is faster than the 6000+ for the same price?

@Slimeball - nope, I;m saying it because I cant run L4D correctly. I couldnt give a flying crap about overclocking. And the 4870 is $200+. Even the 4850 is $160+. I just gave him a GPU thats $99 and gives good performance for price. i just gave him a balanced computer for the cost. If his price range isnt where I think it is I'd say a tri-core or say go Intel.