Upgrade your Current PC, Buy a Vista Capable PC, or buy a new PC when Vista Comes Out?

[genedefcon2000]

Should I upgrade my current PC, buy a Vista Capable PC, or buy a new PC when
Vista comes out? My current PC has 256 MB of RAM, a 2.6 GHz Intel Celeron
processor, and only intergrated graphics, and a 17 inch CRT monitor. It
seems like now is the time to upgrade. What should I do?

 

[Will]

A new graphics card and some extra ram should do it for you
I have vista on one of my older Pc's it has a celeron 2.4 gig cpu and 512Mb
of ram and a radeon 9200se graphics card
it doesn't run aero glass because of the older graphics card but other than
that vista runs very well on it, at least just as good as XP maybe a little
faster.

 

[Will]

just a note to my last post if your thinking about a graphics card
the minimum that will run aero glass
would be a nvidia FX5200
or a radeon 9250
I have a nvidia 6200 on one of my pc's and it runs aero glass very well and
it's a very affordable card

 

[Paul Smith]

Should I upgrade my current PC, buy a Vista Capable PC, or buy a new PC
when
Vista comes out? My current PC has 256 MB of RAM, a 2.6 GHz Intel Celeron
processor, and only intergrated graphics, and a 17 inch CRT monitor. It
seems like now is the time to upgrade. What should I do?

Really depends on how much you're willing to spend.

--
Paul Smith,
Yeovil, UK.
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User.
http://www.windowsresource.net/

*Remove nospam. to reply by e-mail*

 

[Lang Murphy]

You'd need to break down the difference in cost between upgrading your
current PC to a minimum of 1GB RAM and a video card to support Vista, the
cost of Vista itself, which from what I've seen won't be cheap, and the cost
of buying a new PC.

I don't know if Vista will significantly raise the cost of new PC's. If it
doesn't have that big an impact, you might consider buying a new PC that has
Vista on it. But, ultimately, it's your budget that will decide the best
option for you. I don't know where you're located, but one can find some
pretty good deals on new PC's if one is patient and scans the ads each week
in the local papers. Just my two cents...

Lang

 

[Telstar]

Should I upgrade my current PC, buy a Vista Capable PC, or buy a new PC when
Vista comes out? My current PC has 256 MB of RAM, a 2.6 GHz Intel Celeron
processor, and only intergrated graphics, and a 17 inch CRT monitor. It
seems like now is the time to upgrade. What should I do?

I would buy a new machine, but I would keep the monitor if its of good
quality.

What's your budget?

 

[Guest]

It really is all about how much you are willing to spend. I mean, you can
spend the couple hundred to upgrade your memory and graphics cards, or you
can do like I am for the distro release, I am just going to best buy, and
getting a new computer, spending around $700 for a complete system, rocking
and ready to go.
But hey, that is all you. either way, you can make it work.

 

[Chad Harris]

Will--

There are so many possibilities considering on what you look at as a new PC,
what your budget is. I like Lang's 2 cents a lot--. It's very good advice;
and also remember time wise if you are willing to wait a little until early
next year the choice of new dual cores whether laptops or desktops is going
to increase dramatically and because of the introduction of Vista and all of
the competition your choices will increase dramatically as will the sales
and your price options, including the battles of the duals and the quads.

These companies will be going all out to ride the wave of Vista to boost
their PC sales.

Even if you don't build your own you can get perspective from articles like
these:

Build Your Own Windows Vista System
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2015439,00.asp

Windows Vista and the Future of Hardware
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,2000438,00.asp

Windows Vista and PC Gamers
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1941403,00.asp

Read at www.extremetech.com some for some perspective on the new hardware
and Vista--several articles.

A number of helpful hdw guides are here as well:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/default.mspx

Good luck,

CH