Well after much consternation and gnashing of teeth I placed my order for a new PC. It's not state-of-the-art by any means but it'll get me somewhere between an "entry-level" and a "mid-range" PC.

Here's what's coming:

Case: Nzxt Alpha Gaming Tower Case - Black
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E8400 (2x 3.0GHz/6MB L2 Cache/1333FSB)
Motherboard: Asus P5KPL-CM -- Intel G31 Chipset
Memory: 4 GB [2 GB X2] DDR2-800 PC6400 Memory
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 – 896MB - Single Card
Power Supply: 600 Watt
Hard Drive: 320 GB 16M Cache, 7200 RPM, 3.0Gb/s
CD/DVD: 22X Sony Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive
Sound Card: On Board
Speakers: iBUYPOWER 2.1 Channel Stereo Super Bass Subwoofer Speaker System
Network Card: Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100)
Keyboard: iBUYPOWER USB Keyboard - Black
Mouse: iBUYPOWER Internet Mouse - Black
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit

I spent a little more than I wanted to (isn't that always the way?) but I wanted to upgrade the CPU and the video card to something above "bare bones/entry-level". Hopefully this system will be good enough to run ArmAII at an acceptable framerate at 1680x1050 (with or without AA/AF). Really, it's about the only PC game I have any interest in at this point, though that might change in the future.

The downside is that it'll take about 2 weeks or more to get it!

Congrats on the new PC, have fun!

The GTX260 is plenty for Arma2 at that resolution, the CPU will do okay, not great but bearable. It's a sensible "on a budget, but not handicapped" combination IMHO.

Leemz, where did you order it from ?

And that's exactly what I was looking for. I wouldn't have been looking for a new PC if my daughter's hadn't died. So, she'll get mine and I'll get this. Plus, my wife gets a $500 stipend from work (about $350 after taxes) so I'll only be paying about $400 for this PC out of pocket.

@ oldgrangard: As I've done with my last two PC's, I'm getting this one through iBuyPower.com. It's a customized "free-shipping" special.
I was looking at Best Buy for a PC and, though they had some decent Dells, they all came with more memory than I needed, a lower end CPU and crappy video cards so I would have had to buy a better video card and install it myself (not that I can't do it, but why bother?). Anyway, like I said, I bought my last 2 PC's through iBuyPower and I've been happy with them so I'm trying them again. I think they do a good job and they're cheaper than Dell (even with my wife's stipend AND her 7% employee discount).

If you run into trouble with stock Arma missions due to CPU constraints, you can always look for custom designed ones with less AI - I actually have a nice template around that I can send you.

Going by the one and only CPU benchmark

http://www.pcgameshardware.de/aid,687567...imulation/Test/

you clearly see that your originally planned E5300 would have been at the bottom of the chart, somewhere near 15FPS avg. or lower, whereas the E8400 is surprisingly good at 22avg. Which is a perfectly playable framerate for A2, and in missions with reduced AI count (sub-100 by my estimate) you should easily get 30FPS out of it, with normal GFX detail settings.

I'm looking at ibuypower and Cyberpower systems. Right now I'm leaning to a Cyberpower, but am worried about some of the user reviews.

The cyberpower is just a bit cheaper and has overclocking which the ibuypower doesn't.

If you need a bit more oomph that CPU will overclock to 3.6 on air easily, maybe even 4 with a decent cooler and a bit of luck.

@RSColonel_131st
Thanks for the benchmark info. Now I'm extra glad I decided to go with a better CPU!

@oldgrognard
A co-worker of mine bought a PC through CyberPower at the same time I bought mine through iBuyPower. As far as I can recall, he was happy with his purchase. I've gone to both sites and priced the same system. CyberPower was about $5 cheaper for about the same rig.

@Mark Aisthorpe
Good to know. But, I probably won't attempt any overclocking while it's under warranty. But, down the road, I might give it a try if I need a little extra horsepower. The case will only come with minimal cooling, I'm sure. I didn't order anything special for fans but I could probably add more at a later date.

Leemz, thanks for the response. The config I worked between them was a $47 difference plus the Cyberpower was overclocked by them.