Buying a Dell Vostro desktop as a starter rig?

Hello,

first of all I live in Mexico and I recently got my laptop stolen(which I used at my office and at home) so I am now looking for a replacement.

It was an Inspiron 1526, sempron proc, 1270 mobility radeon, 15.4" standard run-of-the-mill laptop.

I used it extensively, about 12 hours a day. I did my work, played games, watched movies, etc.

Since I spend most of my time in my office (10-11 hours a day) I thought a desktop would be better since it's almost impossible to get stolen, gives me twice the performance for the same price and I can always buy a Netbook later for mobility.

Anyway, I was looking at a Vostro desktop from Dell Mexico:

core2duo 2.66ghz
1gb ddr2 ram
256mb ati radeon hd 3450
80gig HD
16x DVD R/W
USB keyboard/mouse
Dell AX210 USB Stereo Speakers
-----------------------------
For around $450 US

I have the option of buying online in the US and a relative of mine sending it down here, but once you take into account exchange rate and shipping costs stuff isn't as cheap as you'd think.

I'd like to state that I do a bit of gaming here and there, since I haven't had a gaming pc in years it's been less frequent as of late but I'd definitely like to be able to play Crysis (as an example) in the near future.

I thought of buying this desktop then upgrade it monthly (my budget is limited as of now) first a good video card, then 4 gigs of ram, then a monitor, etc etc, until I end up with a pretty good system for in 3-6 months that will last me 2 years.

Custom-built would be inconvenient because suppliers down here suck and it'd be a pain in the ass anyway, so I thought of this.

What do you guys recommend? Remember I have the option of buying everything in the US if it's cheap enough.

I was looking for a very cheap core2duo starter kit but couldn't find much, that way I could order everything else from Newegg and build it here.