Maybe...

[MaSonZ]

My laptop may be done for. was doin some things then all sorts of windows popped up and before icould read a single window, it shut down. went to start it in safe mode and run a virus scan with Malware Bytes...wouldnt start in safe mode. consuklted a friend who knows more then is good for him, and i handed my laptop off to him so he could toy with it. if he cant get it runnin right, im probably gonna do a custom machine, but I have never done one before. I could ask my buddy who I gave my laptop to for his thoughts, but I figure a 5 or 10 peoples input is better then 1 persons.
money is an issue..as it is with everyone right now im sure.
next would be recomended hard ware. I dont need anything overboard that can run Modern Warfare 2 with all the fancy things tweeked up like a piece of cake, I just need it to run Aces high..and maybe one or two other games. not sure yet. for the most part though it would be a every day user.
thoughts on software and hardware? probably gonna do windows 7 unless someone else has a suggestion.

[Spikes]

First question is what's your money limit.

[MaSonZ]

around a 1000.

that could change though, thats a ball park figure for now though.

[Spikes]

Does this include monitor, OS, keyboard/mouse etc?

I know of a bunch of systems that have been recently put together on here for under 1K. Definitely doable for what you would need it for.

[MaSonZ]

yea. would need a monitor, mouse, keyboard and OS.

[Tigger29]

It can be done.  I built a system for a squaddie that was having some hard times and trying to play Aces High with a real dinosaur.  With a strict budget of $500 (from donations) I was able to build him a system that handles Aces High extremely well.  I forget the exact part numbers but it was this:

Asus AM3 motherboard
AMD Regor 2.7 Processor
4GB DDR3 ram
ATI 5750 Video Card
Seasonic 550 Watt Power Supply
500GB Seagate Hard drive
Cheap "Rosewill" Case
Asus DVD Burner
Stereo Headset
Two case fans

And the total was something like $499.97.

We also had donations of a 22" Monitor, X52 Pro Hotas, and a retail copy of XP Home.

Needless to say it turned out very nice, and he had 2048 textures, MAX settings, and 4K shadows enabled and still never sees below 60FPS.  His system performs better than most of us who donated to the cause!  I figured total for everything is about $900... add a nice keyboard/mouse and you're still well under a grand.

[MaSonZ]

Wow. Looking as though my laptop will be fixable, but ill keep that in mind tigger. Ty