[F22-Raptor-2006]

Hawk are you intending to use Vista or XP? If your going to use Vista then you will need a bit more ram, probably 2-3 at around your budget that should make it ok. As others have mentioned with the graphic cards u want 256mb which should do, but if you have the money then 512mb. Not exactly sure what type but if you have a look on the internet and just search a bit on google you can find the best in the range with both ATI and Nivida.

If you intend to run IL2 only, which would mean using photoshop and a few other programs as well probably, then even a small hard drive of 80gig would do. In my IL2 408m it is 7gig and my 404m is 3gig. (mainly cos of the amount of skins). This all depends on how much u actually want and your money but i'd say that 80gig will do for only IL2 or even smaller but i don't think u can get that small now on desktops.

Core 2 Duo is good ie twice as fast so around about 2.0ghz or higher would mean around about 4.0ghz and that should be fine but as I have never done any running in Perfect settings as my graphic card is not especially good I do not know.

Internet Provider is also one, make sure u get a good fast connection which doesn't break up.

I'll have a look around see what I can find... in your budget of around