Ah. The thing is I want to be as dark side as possible so I'm always taking the dark side option even if it might be better to take the light side. I might modify my approach as I level up.
On the upside, I just purchased an i5 750 Quad core off a friend with a Nvidia GTX 460 for about $400 used, Win 7 included. I've been playing with choppy graphics but it should be much better now.
My next character will definitely be a jedi knight.