I' m thinking of buying a new computer to play games on since I now have to play all PC games at my friends place, but I don' t know much about PC,s so I wonder if you could give me some advice. Questions:

1. How powerfull should a PC be? You know, Processor, RAM, graphics-card etc. I' d like to play Half-life 2, Doom 3 and other visually stunning titles with the highest graphic settings (or at least close enough to feel that I' m taking advantage of the games graphics). I mean, playing Doom 3 with the lowest settings kind of gives you the feeling that you are missing out on something.

2. Which Processor is best? AMD Athlon or Intel Pentium?

3. I' m willing to spend up to 1500$ for a new computer (screen and OS NOT included). Is that enough to get a good one? If not, I' ll use that money to build a good library of games for the next-gen consoles.

4. How long can I expect a computer, of that price, to be able to play future titles? If it will only last for three months, I might as well buy a more expensive one.

5. Since I don' t know shit about PCs, is there anything else I should know about them?