Can I just say, Don't get Vista.

It is terrible for gaming - I don't care about new versions of directx or what have you, vista is power hungry and causes all sorts of errors even in simple games.

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I use Vista for gaming all the time, its not faster/slower than XP for gaming - Proven by many benchmarks that im too tired to look for.

*Causes Errors* - Well ok I lost a couple of really OLD games from my back catalogue but I haven't had any errors, infact everythings been more stable. Furthermore its easy to keep everything up to date as things like Video drivers are updated with windows update so you'll probably experience less issues as game errors are constantly patched Ati/Nvidia.

I have two vista systems - 32/64 and they both run fine. Infact my Vista 64 system with 900mb ram after integrated takes some runs smoother than my XP system with 1gb of ram and similar specs.

The only concern with Vista for me is that 64bit drops 16 bit support so it kills more programs and its a bitch to find drivers for old peripherals like Wireless cards as i've found out.

Well, I just got this setup up and running (I was out of town, so it took a while to order).

Can I just say holly shit it's fast! I am running xp at the moment, and seeing only 3.5 Gig or ram, but that's ok.

What surprised me is how much games were CPU limited with my old setup. (the slowest AMD dual core, whatever that is).

I get double the frame rate in Mass Effect, and I am using the same video card. The load screens are two seconds or less (most of the time they are less then a second).

Now I just need to order my ATI 4850, and I will be all set :)

What exactly happened to your computer? You should try changing out a few parts before buying an entire new computer.

For example, I had thought my computer died but it turned out my Video card went bad.

It was time for an upgrade anyway.

I am not sure what was really wrong with it. If I had to guess, the PSU or Mobo. The HD and video card were fine, as I have the same video card, and plugged in my old HD to transfer the files off of it.

When I am done with it, I will have $750 in it. (that includes a new video card, and 1100 watts of power supply)

I can't complain about that :)