I'm Gonna Wait

[Beirut]

Well, I've seen pics of DX10 graphics and they do look mighty sweet. And I want them sweet, sweet graphics for my flightsims.

I find many of us live in a great computational paradox; we all desperately want newer and better, yet at the same time we get very upset when newer and better is "forced" upon us.

In a few years, Vista and DX 10 will (probably) be like XP and DX9 are now; the only way to go. Most of us are running XP with DX9 right now and looking with curiosity at those still using Win98 and DX8. (Stone knives and bear skins.)

Same poop - different OSs. Change is never easy.

[Papewaio]

Go either for a really good XP SP 2 system (conroe, 2GB ram, PCI-E graphics card(s)) or wait until PS3 has been released and the console wars have begun.

Then see if you want a 360, Wii or PS3.

Since MS is putting so much emphasis on 360 they ain't do many favours for PC gaming at the moment.

For Vista, I would wait until someone else breaks the ice with it and SP1 is released. You don't want to be the guinea pig. As it is you can get a XP system that is tried and tested with all the settings maxed out and you can play all the TW series without a major hassle on it for the next 5 to ten years. Or you can wait for a year to get Vista and you will have to invest to get the best performance out of it.

It is because of MS's latest temper tantrums (no DX 10 for XP for instance) that has got me looking more and more closely at PS3 or WII or even back to a Mac.

[Lemur]

In a few years, Vista and DX 10 will (probably) be like XP and DX9 are now; the only way to go. Most of us are running XP with DX9 right now and looking with curiosity at those still using Win98 and DX8. (Stone knives and bear skins.)

I really don't know. DX10 is a radical redesign, and Microsoft usually needs three tries to get something new working properly. I'm starting to think the move to DX10 might be long and tortured.

Heck, I know people who are still gaming on Win2k, and most games work for them.

[BDC]

Bail and get one of the sexy, cheap, powerful 24" iMacs. Then buy a tv decoder for it and boom, a good looking Mac/Windows machine which doubles as an HD TV.

[doc_bean]

A ps2 is around 100$ now if you want cheap gaming.

Personally I'm keeping my old system (2.6Ghz, 9700pro) for another year. It still runs new games rather well (Prey at 800x600, but I'm not a resolution freak) and I rarely game anymore anyway. I could probably last longer than a year with this system but I'm going to try and get some money out of my parents before I move out entirely

If you don't game you don't need new hardware/software. Win98 is outdated because it isn't (as much) 'internet ready' so a lot of people switched to XP. I still know people running win98 on (nearly) 10y old machines and being quite happy about it.