been gaming off and on since the 80s, hardcore pc gamer 1995-2010 with hundreds of titles on my book shelves...around 2009 i decided I needed more in life than just gaming, i was spending every weeke...

hard core simulation = PC domination ....fly sims- military sims - racing sims ...this is really the only thing I care about anymore, but yeah I remember when PC had more focus and consoles were luck...

Windows xp was great, still have a few PCs around the workplace still deployed on xp that are running older CNC machines...our workstations are 80% windows 10 and 20% windows 7 now in 2019

if you are into racing games I would get an 21:9 ultrawide monitor, which I also find nice for fp shooters...very immersive I have an LG 29" 2560 x 1080p ips 75hz

go on amazon and search for "bed desk" or lap desk....thats a starting point, lots of options

Battlefield 2/Bad Company 2bf2 hooked me like no other sometimes spending an entire weekend playing, quake 3 team arena- ut2004 wasn't bad either