Windows XP for Home Users, Service Pack 2 Edition

To play today's technically demanding PC games, you need a truly state-of-the-art computer system. In fact, it takes a more powerful system to play games than it does to perform more traditional computer applications, such as word processing and number crunching.

If you're buying a new PC for your game play, expect to shell out some big bucks. For the system you want, you'll probably need to shell out $2,000 or more possibly a lot more if you really want to go first-class.

The first thing you want is a fairly powerful processor. Think Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon running at 3GHz or more. You'll also need a bunch of memory, at least 1GB.

Because games take up a lot of disk space, go for at least an 100GB hard disk bigger, if you can get it. You should also upgrade from a normal CD drive to a combo CD/DVD drive, because many new games are coming on single DVDs rather than multiple CDs.

You'll definitely want a high-quality 3D sound card, and at least a 256MB 3D video card with graphics accelerator. You'll also want a kick-ass speaker system with a powerful subwoofer. You should even consider going with four satellite speakers instead of two, for true surround sound.

Finally, to play the big games you'll need a big monitor. A 19-inch CRT monitor or 17" LCD display should do the trick. And don't forget a good game controller or joystick you just can't work some of these games with a simple mouse.

Obviously, any PC with these specs is more than capable of running Windows XP without any problems. Your main concern is making sure your system has enough horsepower to run the latest and greatest games.