I mostly agree with ZFR.
For a
good midrange system I recommend the following (all prices US$):
AMD FX-60 cpu ($675 approx)
Asus A8N32-SLI deluxe ($125 approx)
at least 1GB of Corsair DDR PC3200 ($90/gb)
2x [RAID-0]
Western Digital Caviar SE (SATA150) 250gb, 7200rpm, 8mb cache ($120 approx)
GeForce 7950 1GB ($540 approx)
case/ps at least 480W ($160 approx)
total: 1710
add in your choice of optical drive, keyboard, mouse, monitor, etc.
As you can see, this system puts the money where it will best impact performance - the FX-60 is killer at a bargain price, and the dual 7950 is cutting edge, so you shouldn't need another GPU for a at least a year or two.
Add in a second GB or RAM, a cheap optical drive, and $100 worth of accessories and you still come in under $2K.
[ 11-11-2006, 03:10 PM: Message edited by: Sir Krustin ]