Getting a New PC, Need Advice

[KNUBB]

hey guys, i posted this in another area by accident so if the original one gets moved here, my bad

anyway, recently i decided to buy a new PC from iBuyPower, my biggest concern is that i want to get a video card that will be able to play some of the newer video games out there at pretty decent quality while still not paying more than $900 for it (i'm in college, gotta save some money)

i'm not a hardcore PC gamer so i don't want a top-of-the-line God-like Video Card, but i want something that will allow me to play some games like Mass Effect 2 and Borderlands and Left 4 Dead 2 on solid quality

basically it's down to three different video cards that iBuyPower sells:
NVIDIA GeForce GT 220 - 1GB
NVIDIA GeForce 9800GT - 1GB (or 512 MB, haven't decided)
ATI Radeon HD 4670 - 1GB

here are some of the specs that i'll have with the computer:
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E8400 (2x 3.0GHz/6MB L2 Cache/1333FSB)
Windows 7
320 GB Hard Drive - 16M, 7200 RPM, 3.0 GB/s
4 GB [2 GB X2] DDR2-800 PC6400 Memory Module More Options

here's a link to what i've selected, not sure if it will work:
http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/Configurators.aspx?mid=119

i'm willing to give out any other information about the comp you guys need

Anything ATI is great. Nvidia cards have dropped in quality. AMD is taking over

 

[leaffan]

Overall pretty decent for the money your spending.

Looking at the link I'd change a few things. First drop the Liquid Cooling. It may be free but its a pain in the ass. Unless your into changing the liquid every month and keeping an eye on it.

Get the 4 Gigs of ram like you were thinking.

I don't know your budget but I would go with just a little higher video card. Something like the 5670 or the 250. They are only 50/60 bucks more. If you can't out of the that list I think the 9800GT (w/ 1GB of ram) blows the other two out of the water. Its an older card but it still plays everything quite well.

 

[leaffan]

my budget originally was less than $900, but i realized that even though i don't play PC games that much, i wouldn't mind having the option to buy any PC game that i want (like Mass Effect series since i don't have an XBOX)

what do you suggest other than the liquid cooling? the other free CPU Fan and Heatsink or paying extra for the Thermaltake cooling system?

and yeah i'm thinking about the 250, my friend has it and says it's more than worth it for the 20 something extra bucks

also would my screen resolution matter for the card? i currently use 1024x768 because i have a smaller monitor, if i upped it to 12-something (can't remember) would that make the graphics seem a little better for the game?

The free heatsink and fan will do. You just need to clean the dust out of it every 6 months or so and you won't have problems. The 8400 runs fairly cool so unless your overclocking it so the normal heatsink will work.

For the card the higher the resolution you run the more card you need. Good thing is that a card like a 250 playing something at 1280X1024 is probably allright. Hell I've been running CoD4 at 1920X1200 with my 8800GTS (320MB) for the past two years and I don't notice any issues.

And yes the higher the resolution the better the games look.