First off, to enjoy HD with the Xbox 360, you dont need to spend $2000 on a new television. Just get the VGA adaptor and get a widescreen monitor, and you're set with high-resolution gaming. Also, if you look at the cost of a core system with the VGA adaptor and the hard drive, it costs the same as the Standard system, so in reality the core system IS the better buy for people without an HDTV. Anywho, my four-year-old PC is able to run it just fine, but I'm due to build a new rig really soon, as my whole system is just aging. Still, it has yet to drop below 30fps. Pentium IV 2.8ghz, ATI Radeon X800XL AGP, 1 GB of some cheap ass RAM. :)