Pretty much what I have now, BB, except i wen twith 4 gig ram (since it's cheap), and a ati x1950 pro video card.

I also opted for xp32 pro, not vista, though I will probably upgrade to xp 64 during the holiday season, since many higher end applications really like xp 64.

Tom's hardware is a great performance comparison site, though it also is good to check other sites as well, because sometimes they are "brand slanted".

I was amazed the 1950 pro was still considered the video card best buy under $200 fully a YEAR after I bought mine. Downside for gamers is it does not have DX10 built in, only DX9, but it still does a excellent job with the new UT3 demo and BioShock.

Way too many people take way too many things way too seriously.