Buying a comp at Best Buy

Sorry for replying so late, I haven't been able to use a computer recently, not long enough for an initial response. Before reading this thread again, I went back to Best Buy and talked to someone who looked like they knew a bit more what they were talking about, and recommended this computer to me. He admitted that while it should work alright straight out of the box, he recommended I buy and updated graphics card and power supply(?), which should cost about $60-$80 (each?). I'm hoping this will be a decent computer to finally have for myself.

The woman that recommended this computer to you is an idiot. Intel GMA will barely play Maplestory, let alone WoW. You'll be playing at the lower resolutions, and you'd be much better off with a graphics card. It does have a PCI-E slot which you'll need for the graphics card, but then you'd have to open up your computer to install it.

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It's extremely easy to install a graphics card. It's one of the most simple upgrades to do because it's very hard to screw up. There are much more difficult upgrades to do (replacing motherboard being one of the hardest).

For what you'll be using it for, spending $50-100 on a graphics card would be well worth the money. If you're just playing Maplestory (or even WoW), you don't need to spend that much for good performance. It's only when you need to run it at higher resolutions that you need to spend more on the card.

Thanks a lot for the link, Fiel. The computer noob I am, I know nothing about installing the simplest of software. I knew from the beginning that woman didn't know what she was talking about, which is why I'm glad I posted here first.

I honestly wouldn't recommend buying anything from Best Buy, their prices are outrageous.. there are sites where you can pick the parts you want in your computer and they'll build it for you and ship it out, at a much cheaper price. I recommend tigerdirect and newegg. <.< Also in reply with Fiels recommendation, that would be a wise choice, on board GFX cards are very horrible at running games for the most part. You can get a 9500 GT Nvidia easily for $80, or an HD Radeon 4650 for around $100. Both handle really well.
All in all I say this computer she recommended is the biggest rip off I've seen. There's no reason to even have 8GB of Memory.. You would be perfectly fine with 4 GB of DDR2 Memory, and like I said building a computer from scratch is the best deal you'll get.. and most sites will like I said, build them for you. Regards to the Core i3 processor.. you can easily get a Dual 2 Duo for under $200. I'd recommend the E8400.

Yeah, I know Best Buy usually charges a little extra for what they got. I'm glad to know there are sites out there that will actually give you the parts and put them together for you instead of a "do-it-yourself" program. Thanks for those links; if this computer the guy recommended to me, which seems fairly legit so far (unless I'm missing something obviously moronic), that might be the best route since getting a simple computer for myself is too much to ask for when it comes to Best Buy. Their geeksquad was going to charge me $200-$300 for a problem I ended up fixing myself within 20min a few years ago.

I have heard more about that XP thing too, although I don't think the comp I was recommended comes with it. However if the DL is really simple, I can probably obtain it after purchasing said computer. Seems really convenient from what I read. I still find it weird that even they seem to be noticing XP is superior to Vista and 7 in some areas; I always thought the problems were solely MS-based.