Since both the AMD and Intel systems were the beneficiaries of a serious CPU speed boost, the amount of money for system memory is a bit lower this month. Still, we can outfit the PC with a full 128-MB of PC133 SDRAM and upgrading it later should be both easy and very inexpensive. In this case, spending the cash on a high-end processor makes better economic sense, given the radical differences in potential upgrade costs between a brand-new CPU and an extra 128-MB of SDRAM.

Buying a new hard drive with enough speed and storage space for your current and future needs used to be a far more difficult proposition that it is today. For just over $100, we can buy an ultra-fast IBM Deskstar 60GXP drive featuring an expansive 40 GB of disk space. This ATA100 drive spins at 7200 RPM and also features a full 2-MB of cache. Purchasing a 40 GB drive might seem like a bit of overkill right now, but you just might need the extra space just to install Diablo 3 and all of its add-ons.