Power is what users at this level crave, and it is available for the taking - up to the limits of your credit card and bank account, that is. Right now, the current king of all processors is Intel's Pentium II series. Faster than pretty much anything else out there, they're guaranteed to get even faster in the coming years. Although the company plans to hit 450 mhz and possibly above in 1998, the fastest model currently available runs at 300 mhz, a speed that will put you way ahead of the game for at least a few months. At least 64 megabytes of RAM is necessary at this level, with 128 megabytes considered an impressive amount.
Accessories are much more important at the power-user level.
How about an AWE64 sound card from Creative Labs. Waking the neighbors is fun. Go for the new 7 gigabyte model. Don't even contemplate less than 56k. Basically, as much as you want to spend, you can.