As far as a barebones kit, PCs are so cheap now, that you can pick up one at BestBuy stripped down and just soup it up as you get the cash. Just as long as it has room in the tower for expansion. My current PC is almost three years old, but its as fast - I believe - as any of the dual processors. It is a Gateway 3.4 gig P4 Extreme and came with a gig of RAM. I added another gig from Zipzoomfly who was the cheapest at the time, added two more serial hard drives (there were three open bays) and a USB card for more USB 2 connections. I can still swap out the graphics card which is PCI express Radeon 128. It runs the latest DOOM etc with no flicker. I am very happy with this PC's upgradability. It came with a CD-ROM drive and a DVD burner and card readers as well as firewire and USB. The original 120 gig hard drive has long since been replaced and I have a terrabyte in the three drives. Do not buy a small tower if you want to upgrade. Good luck.