Yes, I'd definitely overclock your Q8300. I'm running my at 3.0GHZ and will try higher when I get better RAM. However, I have a GTX 295 and can still run most games just fine. I'm sure if you took either any two AMD n800 or Nvidia n70+ series or any one AMD n9 or Nvidia n9 card you should be just fine for a while coming. If you are lucky enough to have an SLI board and multiple 90 (NVIDIA) or 900 (AMD) then almost all games will play just fine for a while to come. My statement holds true with anything like the 2xGTX 275, or 2x4870 these will do a passable job 30-50 fps or 2 GTX 295s (Dual GPU Card) 2 4870x2s (Dual GPU Card) should kick ass for a while to come. All that being said I don't recommend anyone play any game until it's at least 2 years old. Let them work the bugs out and optimize it. The same game will run faster and cause you far less grief if you can keep your pants on long enough for them to work most of the bugs out. I recently beat Quake 4 and it's still a fun game. I'm playing Batman: Arkham Asylum right now. I plan on playing these other games I own when I get around to it Crysis I, II, Far Cry 2, Assasin's Creed: Brotherhood and Half Life 2. They're all great highly rated games. I'd rather have a system that is overkill for a particular game than play the latest and greatest with something passable. I know I saw nearly the full potential of Quake 4 and am enjoying nearly the full potential of Batman Arkham Asylum. Old games are great, the vast majority of bugs have been worked out. Your system can handle it, the hacks, and walkthroughs have all been published, and your drivers have either been tuned to work better or not crash while playing. Not only that, but you can pick them up on Steam for $5-10 vs. $50-60. Pre-ordering is pure insanity in my opinion, wait until the game doesn't crash after every 15 minutes of gameplay.