Newcomer to installing hardware

Integrated graphics...good or bad...depends on what you plan on doing. If you can post your budget, games/software you plan on running then I'm sure someone will be able to find what you need.

I see that your computer has a 300W PSU, depends on the graphics card, you might need to upgrade that.
 
Aye, the PSU will almost certainly need to be replaced in order to use any GPU that would offer an appreciable difference in video performance.

Thankfully it appears to be ATX, and the case offers what appears to be good room inside. So how much you spend depends on what you want to get out of it really.

In addition to Rabbit01's response, let us know what resolution and detail level you want to play your games at.
 
I would like to run them at my current 1600 x 900 ratio.
And I would at least like to run some of the higher end games like battlefield 3, skyrim, guild wars 2, and the upcoming borderlands 2. I'm hoping to play these with ought the purchase of a brand new computer.
My price range 300$ or lower. Would a PSU upgrade be that necessary?
 
Also I wouldn't mind most of those games at medium-low detail. I prefer performance over visuals most of the time.
 
A HD 6870 would work well for your resolution and gaming requirements. This Sapphire Radeon HD 6870 will cost you $169.99 and even with a new PSU you'd have plenty of money left over. All but BF3 would run at highest detail without an issue.

I'd recommend 500-600w for your setup. Something like a Seasonic S12II 520 would be ideal. That'll set you back a cent under $70 (on sale right now), and will last you many years as you can re-use it in future builds along with the GPU. Seasonic are one of the best (if not the best) PSU-makers on the market.

Both those will cost set you back $239.98 delivered, so well below your maximum budget and you'll get Dirt 3 for free as well.
 
Well that's all good news to hear. Was just unsure about my pci slot and all (I don't know very much about the pci slots but I have been learning some things).
You have set my mind to ease sir. That even though some best buy employee probably tried to misinterpret what I wanted I will still be able to play the games I love with my friend.
Also I'm curious, what are the [FONT=Arial]3 PCI Express x1 slots used for? Thank you in advance you have been a huge help![/FONT]
 
Graphics cards use the PCI-Express 16x (2.0 and 3.0) slots.

The smaller ones are for other hardware components that use the PCI-express X1 slots, like network and wireless cards, SATA cards, RAID cards, audio cards and the like and use less bandwidth (which is why they use smaller connectors).
 
Hopefully using a non integrated gpu would help. Some games I have been playing seem choppy.
 
It'll make a huge difference to game play.

You don't need to worry about whether its a PCI-Express X16 2.0 or 3.0 really, as the GPU will work in either version.
 
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