Pentium 4 3.0Ghz single core
1GB DDR RAM
7600GT 256MB GDDR3 Video Card
2 Internal Harddrives one 80 gig the other 200 gig
1 external 500 gig harddrive

My next pc will be a quad core 3ghz cpu with sli setup 8800GT, 4GB ddr2 ram runing at 1066mhz or higher.
By the way my current setup is more than enough however in order to play upcoming games or games that have come out like crisis and supreme commander I have to upgrade soon.

For people looking to upgrade or buy new computers for gaming here's a free piece of advice. If you want to take advantage of your hardware make sure that your motherboard supports the speeds that the rest of your components will be running on.

For example it doesn't make sense to buy ram running at 1066mhz if your motherboard supports only up to 800mhz. So when building a computer make sure to find out the whole specs for each hardware component.
At the end of the day your pc is only as fast as the slowest component if you catch my drift :)

P4 3ghz
1.5 GB DDR Ram
X800 XT PE
650 GB HD space (5 HDD)

Crysis will run on it but it looks POO!!
COD4 runs very good even with some cool effects
HL2, Portal etc looks/runs great

8800GT on a PII motherboard FTW!!!

note: it's not possible but that's why it has to be retrofited, mods FTW!!!

 Actually, no. All components from good manufacturers will support components at least one speed grade above the manufacturers' guidance. It might seem 'risky', but it isn't and it saves you $100 on a new motherboard. For example, an FSB1600 part will work in a FSB1333 motherboard with no issues, ever. The fact that the rated speed is much lower than the real one is because a) Ratings are in worst possible conditions and  b) if they get you to buy one board now and one board in six months just by changing a number that's ideal for them.

For example, an Xbox wireless hub will work with an Xbox 360 (I hear). They don't give support for it on the box because they want you to buy a new hub. It still works though.

Ofcourse its true that a lot of hardware is built like that however I was talking about optimisation and wasn't saying that it wouldn't work just that im my opinion it would be easy for someone who doesn't know much about computers to for example buy a great CPU, RAM and video card but get the cheapest motherboard because they think that the motherboard is not important. Thus that system would be restricted by the motherboard.

You gotta admit that there are some really low end motherboards out there which obviously don't support the latest hardware. So while most of the time if you pay a decent amount you should get decent hardware I am saying that a lot of people will cut corners and will end up suffering as a result.

And ofcourse my point mainly applies to people that build computers from scratch and not systems which are already built for them which like you said if the retailer is good they will put together a good system. 

 That's true. There's no point buying a $1000+ CPU if it is bottlenecked by a 5 year old low-end GPU.

Ok now we're on the same page. While I do believe most people will do the right thing, unfortunately there will be people that for various reasons either because of lack of knowledge or budget will cut corners and it's good to let people know that there are potential side effects of making rash decisions in building systems.

Thanks for your reply, come to think of it I think this is the first time I have discussed something PC related on this forum for a change

@game_boy
Vista ultimate was the default OS, it does what is needed and so no need to change, i dont play graphically intensive games like bioshock so have no need for mega graphics card. I will change the graphics cards but not for like 2-3yrs. my pc is used mainly for work and media, the last pc game i bought was Warhammer 40k expansion pack 'winter assault'.

 OK. I assumed it was a gaming PC. For work and multimedia, yes, great.