You really didn't know this? It seems legit from your edit...

Anyway, a "good" gaming PC is verrry speculative.

To be able to play Brink at high settings you're going to drop roughly around $1000 - this also depends on where you buy, what you buy, and if you choose to build on your own or not.

Your best bet if you want a top-of-the-line PC is to either build one yourself or find a friend who can... you'll get the best value and learn how to upgrade as you need to go.

It's pretty complicated/pricy compared to console setups - hence console popularity.

You can easily build a PC for $600 that will play nearly everything out there at or near max settings.

Only a few games like Metro 2033 or Crysis will require you to lower a few settings a little bit. On all games, though, the graphics are still substantially better than you get on consoles.

It will also be an awesome computer for all the other stuff a computer can do.

That wouldn't include a monitor, however. But you can just hook it up to an HDTV if you have that.

But yeah, preloading and being able to play games the instant they are released is just one of the many benefits of PC gaming.

[The Steam sales are another awesome aspect of gaming on PC. They are always having amazing sales on games. Yesterday they had Mass Effect for $5, and right now you can get Crysis for $7.99 or Crysis and Crysis Warhead together for $9.99. It's cool stuff, believe me.]

You really don't need to spend all that much, yes if you want absolute top of the range Overclocked, overkill then yes open your wallet and don't ever close it.
But for example, I built my PC in 2007 to play Crysis and back then yes it did cost me £1300 ish, but now, 4 yrs later it still plays pretty much all games at high settings and you could buy a PC equivalent to mine now for about £400. It's really not as bad as people will have you believe.
There is a difference between a gaming PC and an enthusiast PC.

Not all games pre-load early, and not all digital retailers offer it, but it's becoming a pretty common occurrence - so much so that many PC gamers have come to expect it.

It's a pretty sweet feature that consoles don't get.. yet.