Looking for suggestions on how to go about building a decent gaming rig.

[Twist85]

I am retiring my old Dell XPS 600 today and am looking into possibly building my own gaming rig. Like most folks I am on a budget, around 500$, so I would like to know what are the best parts I can hope to get for my new machine. I am pretty savvy when it comes to these things, but I would like to know specifically what I should get. I am hoping to get at least 30fps while playing Guild Wars 2 and similar online games.

 

[aevm]

I'd say you need a GTX 550 Ti or HD 7770 or GTX 660, etc. Those cost between $100 and $200.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/guild-wars-2-performance-benchmark,3268-6.html

 

[aevm]

Start here:
XFX CORE Edition FX-777A-ZNF4 Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150598
$80 after rebate

 

[Twist85]

Are you saying I can forgo building a new machine and just grab a better Graphics card? It being so old( bought in 2006) I'm not sure if there were minimums required as far as motherboard and RAM. My current machine has 2 PCIe slots and one of them is 16x I believe. Thanks for your prompt response.