As long as you don't have a crappy, crappy, small little power supply, the 8600GT will be just fine. They barely pull power. The 8800GT is way out of your price range, and it does draw quite a bit of power, so if you did decide to get it, then I would say you should find out about your powersupply.

The HD3850 is great on low power consumption, and is the better card and will put you more future proof. But 8600GT will for sure do you good for TF2 right now.

Woot. Just got a XFX 8600 GT XXX... it was the cheapest one -- $100 ><'' Sucks that I can't get access to my computer until tomorrow night. But I was wondering if overclocking this card is advisable, or too dangerous for the card?

Anywho, cant wait to try out Team Fortress 2. Thanks for all the replies =)

It's OCed already. So there's a bit of head room, and it's probably worth it to try and OC it. It will play TF2 well. Be ready to be pretty happy :D

This is a review of your card and results of OCing.
[H] Enthusiast - XFX GeForce 8600 GT XXX Edition

Dude. Wtf. My computer has a PCI slot, but there isn't any room to fit the fucking card. AHHHHHH. I AM SO PISSED. Is there a way to somehow get it to fit?

Do you have a small Dell pc? If you have a smallish PC, that is gonna limit your options. I would send it back and get something else. Are you sure you cant fit the card, and that you can't open or disassemble the case any further? And is the card too long, too tall, or too fat?

Oh wow, I'm an idiot. I should have opened my computer first to check what video card it can handle (instead of relying on you guys). Yeah, it can only handle PCI. Is there any way to convert to PCI-E, an adapter to have an external video card? ><

So I guess... what's a good PCI card? =/ Fucking emachines/dell.

edit: Do you recommend buying a new mother board just for it?

You can't convert PCI to PCI-E, due to bandwidth and power differences. Don't waste your time with a PCI videocard, they aren't good for anything made in the last 3 years. Also, I'm not sure about getting a new motherboard, because you would also have to look at upgrading the Power supply. Not to mention the fact that the CPU in there is most likely using an old/budget socket, which puts a damper on any upgrading possibilities.

Lesson learned: Unless you fork out thousands of dollars, retail machines suck for upgrading. Your best bet is to build a new PC from scratch. If you don't know how, hire someone to do it for you.

Ah damn. After all this hype of playing Team Fortress 2. I'll have to wait another few months to even afford a new computer. I'm might just say fuck it, and just get a PS3. >.>

thanks =/

PC components are pretty cheap nowadays, so a PS3 would probably cost more than it would to put together a computer that's up to snuff. If there are a lot of PS3 games you want to play though, then yeah, go for it.

I'd personally go X360 if you don't want to PC upgrade, but yeah, sorry dude. That's the suck of having those more "budget" PCs.