I gatta say, that's a very unbalanced machine. The CPU and total RAM are fucking overkill to the max, considering you're using relatively mid range RAM speed, video card, and only a single SATA drive.
Anyways, no adventure games are going to push your hardware very far. Adventure games tend to be very scaled down for low end systems. Aside from Mass Effect and Oblivion, and maybe Gothic 3, I dont know of any RPGs that will push it. If you aren't in this for FPS and a few RTS games, you just aren't going to get your money's worth, sorry.
Niode wrote:Also the Radeon HD4850 wipes the floor with the 9800GT and costs the same... Hell you could have got 2 HD4850s in crossfire and it would beat an nVidia 280GTX in most games.
I've been keeping up with the 4850s and how they compare to similar priced nvidia cards and I gatta say, people have really blown this whole thing out of proportion. The initial limited benchmarks showed those cards doing fantastically in comparison, but then the more and more I studied into it, the more the benchmarks started balancing out with the competition. The 4850 is no doubt a great deal, at least performance wise, but it isn't stomping nvidia's offering like people have been chanting. Also, if ATI's drivers are anything like they were late last year when I was running an X1950XT, then the public is best left sticking with nvidia. I had so many god damn issues with their drivers, and half my game collection was generally unoptimized for ati, often running unusually poorly. I sold it and bought an nvidia 8800GT and could not have been happier. It was priced lower, uses less power, less heat, , runs faster, and runs quieter (thus no need for a zalman cooler like the ATI card needed) and MUCH more solid.
Seriously guys, when it comes to hyped up cards like this, ignore the professional reviews, and pay attention to user scores and comments. In the coming months, I bet you anything the initial buyers of the 4850 are going to come back to Newegg's review forms crying.