Can someone help me choose a graphics card for my new pc?

[LostInAudio89]

I recently purchased this computer on newegg.com as a bare bones desktop that i could slowly upgrade.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883108660

I thought it was a great jumping off point. I would like to be able to play games around the caliber of starcraft 2 and Assassin's Creed.

The first thing I realized i need to upgrade is the graphics card. I'm kind of new to hardware, as my specialty has always been in software development. Can someone either help me find a reasonably priced card, or possibly give advice on what to look for in a card and what kind of card will fit the pci on the provided motherboard?

Also, will I have to upgrade from the 280W supplied power supply, or is there a way to make it work without purchasing that as well?

Thank you so much, I greatly appreciate your help.

 

[fil1p]

Well here are some problems:

1. Your Pentium may bottleneck your GPU
2. Yes you will need to upgrade your power supply, get a good 450-500watt psu
3. You need to make sure you have a Pcie 2.0 x16 slot for a GPU

Now as for a GPU, what is your budget? For $170 you can get a HD6870 which will play all your games nicely (may be bottlenecked by CPU), or if you are on a tight budget you could get a card for $119-129 like a GTX550ti, that will still play all of your games.

Hope this helps!

 

[LostInAudio89]

thank you for the reply. I do indeed have a Pcie 2.0 x16 slot. I was hoping to stick around the 100 dollar range for the graphics card so i'll look at the second one you posted. I'll start looking at power supplies as well. Thank you so much.

 

[fil1p]

No problem,

As for power supplies here are some good brands to start off with:
Antec
Seasonic
Corsair

Also there are many others, so if you find a power supply that you think is good, just post the link and I'll check.

 

[LostInAudio89]

thanks man. I feel like such a noob, but i've always had laptops, and I work mostly with software dev haha. I really appreciate the education. I'll post if i find something.