Hi, I was planning on getting Windows Vista when it comes out, but now I am wondering if I should upgrade my current computer to Vista or just buy a new computer with Vista all ready installed. I must buy a RAM chip to get my computer to meet the minimum system requirements for Vista, which means I will be spending about $230 for the operating system, and another $50 for the hardware upgrades to run Vista. Now thats probally around $300, I could get a new computer for that much! I want to use Vista for gaming and Internet, for media playback, and get Halo 2 Vista when it comes out. I hava a 16mb ATI Mobility M6 graphics card, 2 GHz Pentium 4 CPU, and a 37.2GB hard drive. I plan on buying Windows Vista Home Premium. Should I upgrade my old computer to Vista, or just buy a brand new computer?

You're certainly not gonna get good gaming out of a 16MB Mobility M6, no matter what you do. And a good gaming laptop costs well over $1000. You're not gonna get good gaming out of a $300 desktop system unless you sink at least another $300 into upgrades.

Initial reports say that gaming with Vista "stinks". You'd be better off waiting 6-9 months while the bugs are worked, true hardware requirements are determined, & new drivers/software are developed & tweaked.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/01...

no matter how much ram you put into this laptop ... it will not play halo 2 :-)

and the only 2 fully dx10 compliant video adapters (gt8800 series) available as of yet cost well over $400.

Today's subliminal thought is: 'Calm down ... it's only ones and zeros.'

You want a decent gaming laptop, then get ready to spend at least 2500 on a gaming laptop. Aynthing less and you are wasting your money if you tend on having this laptop for 3 years.

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ OC 2.7ghz
2GB Dual Channel DDR 3200
Nvidia 7900GT
SATA II 2x 300gig 7200rpm 16mb cache RAID-0+1
Gigabyte Nforce 4 SLI

yep certainly you need to watch out even hp and other good brands will use dodgy intel graphics 128mb chips so pay more than $2500.
The problem is although it is 128 it is not like ram (compatible with everything) you should get nvidia graphics in a laptop coz its got shader model 3.0 in all its current models ati have them but only in the high range x1800,x1900 and etc.
Also your cpu is not good enough look for some duo 1.6ghz duo at the very minimum and if ur gonna use this for 3to 4 years get something more than 2.0ghz duo processor

I spent about $700 on my Hp t550a and now its runnin smooth as compatible with basically everything except rainbow 6 vegas DANG!!DANG!!

Dont put a question here ..... OK

The video display is the biggest drawback of a laptop. You can change everything else out but that. Maybe one day in the near future they'll have a mini video card slot that is as powerful as a normal sized video card, but until then you are stuck video wise.

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ OC 2.7ghz
2GB Dual Channel DDR 3200
Nvidia 7900GT
SATA II 2x 300gig 7200rpm 16mb cache RAID-0+1
Gigabyte Nforce 4 SLI

Thats why I want to buy a desktop computer now. That way I can upgrade the computer when more powerful hardware is aviable. I would still use my laptop for the Internet and the portabillity
laptops offer, and use the desktop for media playback and gaming. I was planning on spending between $300 and $400 on the computer (my parents will not buy me a new computer because they say they will have to anyway in a few years when I go off to collage, so I am on my own), even though my laptop is starting to break down. I had a problem with the graphics card a while ago, and a week ago the left speaker almost popped out. I basiclly want a computer that I can use for media and gaming.

you can build a budget one now and upgrade it later.

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ OC 2.7ghz
2GB Dual Channel DDR 3200
Nvidia 7900GT
SATA II 2x 300gig 7200rpm 16mb cache RAID-0+1
Gigabyte Nforce 4 SLI

again ... do not expect halo 2 to run satisfactory on a $300 computer.

this is about the money you'll have to cough up for a sufficient PSU for a decent sli system :-)

http://www.guru3d.com/article/psu/368/

Today's subliminal thought is: 'Calm down ... it's only ones and zeros.'

Laptops may become a standard soon for gaming in the coming months. Because Asus change that by releasing their external graphics card set to make the future desktop obsolete.

http://pcexposure.com/2007/01/06/as...

Great news there for laptop gamers. But the catch is your laptop should came fairly new and equip with the latest express slot interface.