Buying a computer for Vista ... and beyond

Putting it all together

If your head is swimming at this point, here's a very practical Vista-capable desktop system configuration you might use as a template:

• ATX Mid Tower computer case: $45
• 2.0 ATX12V 500W Power Supply: $75
• Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express ATX Intel motherboard: $123
• Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4 GHz with 4M shared L2 cache, LGA 775 processor: $318 (2 x 1GB) 240-pin DDR2 SDRAM memory: $220
• Two 250GB, 7,200-rpm SATA 3Gbit/sec. hard drives: $160
• 250GB, 7,200-rpm IDE Ultra ATA100 hard drive: $75
• GeForce 256MB 7900GT PVT71GUQL3 video card: $240
• 18x DVDR DVD burner E-IDE/ATAPI: $30

(Like all the prices in this story, they are subject to change.) Do the maths and it totals about US$1,300 -- well below the typical analyst's prediction of US$3,000 for a Vista machine. Of course, to get it at that price, you'll have to build it yourself or have an adventurous IT department do it for you.

As your Vista anxiety draws to a close

Hopefully you've noticed by now that while Vista is not necessarily the package of sliced bread that Microsoft would like you to believe it is, it's also not the horrific destroyer of hardware and budgets that others have foretold. In fact, we went through much of the same anxiety with Windows XP when it first poked its head out of Redmond.

Over time, everything resolves itself. The guidelines we've set forth above will let you ride out the inevitable rough waters and still end up with a viable computer for the long term.