Hi m8,
Not sure if this is a good place for that question (not been here long meself). If not, you might like to try another forum I belong to.
www.BuildYourOwn.org.uk
Go to the forums and tell them what you want to use the system for, how much you got to spend, and someone will come back and not only tell you what you need but also how to build it for yourself and help keep your cash away from the evil Dell / Time / Mesh / (... etc, etc, etc...).
Tellem RedSkwirrell sent you.
8)
~S~
(apologies if I'm not sposed to post other forums, or if there's already somewhere in this forum for this)

p.s. without knowing your budget, I'd suggest Windows XP, an AMD based system (although I have a Pentium 4), and an nVidia based card.
I'm thinking about building a new system which will be for the games you mention and the anticipated BoB from Maddox.
I'll be looking at a socket 939 AMD mobo and chip..., Graphics; Maybe SLi, PCI-E. The current best card is the 6800Ultra. Trouble is, as with everything, 'better' costs.

You're welcome m8.
I found it when I was building mine this time last year and it's been a big help since.
Hope you get some good tips and end up with an awesome beast.

~S~

If you're going to fly IL2,you better get some fire power bud. In CFS2 I get on average 80 fps but in IL2 it can run, on average 25 to 45 fps,depending on how much scenery you happen to be in e.g. over Berlin, large airfield scenery etc. I run a 2.8 P4 HTT processor,1G of memory and a rather old nVida  FX5200 128 mg. video card. Granted ,I run all games on highest graphics possible because like most,I like the eye candy.But I find IL2 and PF are REAL resource hogs.
Dd 8)