NedEleven

Pretty much. The Arma 2 engine is very cpu-intensive, so if you're planning on upgrading, definitely try to go for a quad-core i5 at the very least. An SSD would also give you a boost in performance.

You will be able to run it. My specs before I upgraded: E5200 @ 3.4 GHz 3 GB DDR2 HD 6850 I got around 50-ish fps in the countryside on normal settings with view distance at 1000 (anti-aliasing and post-processing disabled) at 1280x1024.

A winter mod has been done for Arma 2, although a seamless transition between all the seasons would be amazing for DayZ.

OP, you should've looked at some videos before buying Arma 2: CO just for DayZ. DayZ is basically a persitent survival game built ontop of a military simulator (Arma 2). It's very realistic and extremely unforgiving compared to the vast majority of games out there. Watch Sidestrafe's videos on DayZ to get an idea of what the mod is like: Here's how to install it: http://dayzwiki.com/...to_install_DayZ

Did it look something like this?

It can, but it needs to be a direct-hit. It fires an AP round (I think), so it's most effective against vehicles. I would save it to use against a chopper or a truck with a lot of players inside.

I remember it like it was yesterday. Hiking through the forested hills east of Kamyshovo, I heard the sound of a car, nearly shitting myself with excitement. I hauled ass toward this T-intersection nearby and hid underneath an Evergreen in a ditch, hoping that the car would pass by. A few minutes later, I heard it again. It was much closer this time. Finally, a white UAZ came roaring up the road, coming to a stop about 20 metres from my position. I bolted out of my cover and ran along the ditch, a fully-loaded revolver in-hand. Metres away from the road, the driver suddenly floored it, kicking up a huge cloud of dust. Fuck. As the machine roared past me, I ran into the middle of the road, raised my revolver, swung 90 degrees to my right and mashed the trigger, letting off a barrage of shots into the rear window of the UAZ. I watched as it blew through the T-intersection, cut the corner and narrowly missed a post before disappearing behind the trees. I stood there in the middle of the road, dumbfounded as I reloaded my revolver. I turned and began walking back into the forest, when out of the corner of my eye a single digit on my debug monitor changed from zero to 1. It turned out that the driver bled to death. Also, when they stopped the car, they ended up killing a random nearby player who they mistook as the shooter. I spent the next 5 minutes laughing my ass off, but as I thought about it, I began to genuinely feel bad for the guy I just killed.

No problem. If you do buy those parts' date=' I would get this HDD to go with them.

Just put together a part wishlist for you, OP. I went a tad over $600 USD though: http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=24472367 I didn't include a hard drive since prices are ridiculously high right now, and (assuming you have a desktop PC) you could salvage the HDD from your current PC instead.

^ This. You may find these videos helpful' date=' OP:

There's so many possible scripted weapons that could be added from Arma 2, so it's probably easier to memorize which ones are legitimate: DayZ Weapon List Note: The only two legitimate weapons that are NOT on that list are the M67 frag grenade and the RGO frag grenade.

If you could post a screenshot that would be helpful, but I'm guessing you're stuck in the Debug Forest/Wilderness, which is basically DayZ's version of Purgatory. Apparently it will be fixed in the next patch.