How Should Vista Affect My Hardware Choices?

[Playmaker]

I played games, built my PCs, stayed up to date on hardware, etc. before college, but over the past 3.5 years I've just had my laptop, haven't played a game, and I'm completely out of the loop hardware-wise. I'm about to graduate with a good job and I'd like to build a new computer in the next couple of months (probably in May or so) for gaming in the $1500-$1800 range. I'd like to try WoW, Vanguard, and whatever the latest online FPS is, if that matters.

However, I don't want to drop the cash and then have to upgrade for Vista a couple of months later. Is there any reason to hold off on spending that much and get a cheaper system now, planning to upgrade significantly when Vista comes out? Or should whatever I build scale up fine to Vista?

 

[chilled]

If you do build now, factor in a dual core CPU and 2GB of RAM.

 

[Bobthelost]

Any build in that price bracket will be able to run Vista with ease, with the exception of HDCP, which probably still won't be propperly supported by graphics cards when you buy. However i'm not planning on "upgrading" to vista for a while, probably a year or so after release, hell by then i may well be using OSX instead.

 

[wallsfd949]

Probably should greatly influence your hardware choices for faster, more expensive hardware. If it doesn't, Micro$oft is not doing their job - they are after all a marketing company, not a software company...

 

[TankGuys]

Just buy what you can afford now. I wouldn't stretch just to allow Vista compatability, as you may want to (or have to) upgrade then anyway. It's hard to design a machine to be "future proof" with as fast as technology moves now. I'd say if you want to try and play it safe though, go dual core 2+ Gb of RAM as others have mentioned.

 

[jpotter]

Another factor to consider is that Vista will be introducing the new DirectX 10 API, and currently no graphics card on the market supports it. Therefore, if you want to truly "future-proof" your machine it's probably best to wait until close to the end of the year when the G80/ATI's next generation of cards hits the market which will support the new architecture. Needless to say, any halfway decent DX9 card will run Vista fine, but new games (as of next year I imagine) will probably have new features/options that are optimized for the new DX10.

 

[AMCRambler]

Originally posted by: jpotter
Another factor to consider is that Vista will be introducing the new DirectX 10 API, and currently no graphics card on the market supports it. Therefore, if you want to truly "future-proof" your machine it's probably best to wait until close to the end of the year when the G80/ATI's next generation of cards hits the market which will support the new architecture. Needless to say, any halfway decent DX9 card will run Vista fine, but new games (as of next year I imagine) will probably have new features/options that are optimized for the new DX10.

Well he could build now, but expect to buy a new video card if you want to use all the fancy Vista GUI effects. I think it'll be 2007 before we see any games coming out taking advantage of DirectX 10.

 

[JonnyBlaze]

Originally posted by: Bobthelost
Any build in that price bracket will be able to run Vista with ease, with the exception of HDCP, which probably still won't be propperly supported by graphics cards when you buy. However i'm not planning on "upgrading" to vista for a while, probably a year or so after release, hell by then i may well be using OSX instead.

FYI, you better plan on getting new mac stuff that supports HDCP. This isnt just a vista thing.


on topic.

Unless you see blu-ray or hd-dvds in your future you have nothing to worry about.

 

[Twsmit]

Wait for June, pick up a Socket AM2 AMD system, throw in a dual core CPU, 7900GTX video card, 2GB DDR2-800 ram, and a 250+ GB Hard drive. Probably going to want to pick up an Nvidia chipset, the Nforce 4 or 5, whichever the marteking monkeys label it.

Like the above posters said, any computer out now in your price range is more than Vista ready, the only things lacking are out of our control, those being HDCP compatible video cards, and DX10 video cards.

One thing though, make sure to pick up an HDCP compatible LCD monitor, Gateway has one, and Dell has their 30" and will soon release their 20 and 24" HDCP models. Once you have all this you can buy a DX10 video card with HDCP sometime in 2007 when they actually come out.

 

[DerelictDev]

Wait for "true" HDCP compliant video cards.

You'll need a HDCP compliant monitor, and you'll probably want to pick up the new socket AMD and DDR2 ram.

Other than that, probably around 2gb ram required for decent use and some large HD.

(HDCP only really necessary if your planning on watching High-Def videos. A HD-Dvd and Blu-Ray drive will also probably cost a few hundred so it might not be worth it all for awhile)

 

[Playmaker]

Thanks for the responses. The DX10 and HDCP issues were what I was looking for, I'll have to look into those when I have time to read through a bunch of old posts.

Looking back, when I went from 98 to 2k and then from 2k to XP, there was never any major need to upgrade hardware. In fact, I didn't even make those OS upgrades within 3-6 months of the newer OS coming out if I remember correctly. However, it sounds like DX10 may be an issue if I want to play newer games.

Maybe I'll go cheaper on the vid card and system overall, buy a nicer monitor, and plan to upgrade the vid card if I decide I need to.