Build a Windows Vista System Today! - ' Processor, Core Logic and ' (
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The CPU probably isn't as critical as the core logic or motherboard. Almost any mainstream desktop CPU shipping today will run Windows Vista just fine. It's worth looking for some key CPU features nonetheless. These include 64-bit support, hardware virtualization, and a dual-core architecture.
On the motherboard front, you'll want access to the latest graphics technology available. Yes, it's finally time to give up on AGP. The Vista graphics subsystem will actually make use of PCI Express's bidirectional capability, which means you'll see the graphics card write back out to main memory. So a PCI Express x16 graphics slot becomes highly desirable.
You'll also want the latest storage technologies. Assuming that hybrid hard drives ship, 300MB/second SATA connections (sometimes inaccurately called SATA-II) could be useful. As more of us store our precious digital information—photos, music and other personal media—on our PCs, support for true redundant RAID is becoming increasingly important. So look for RAID 1 or RAID 5 functionality.
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Even if you don't move to 64-bit computing, more memory becomes increasingly necessary. It's likely that Vista's memory footprint will be larger than Windows XP. A good rule of thumb in the past has been to go with 4x the minimum memory requirements. The suggested minimum for Windows XP was 128MB; 512MB is a much more useful minimum. Microsoft is recommending 512MB for the Vista beta builds, but the actual minimum requirements haven't been finalized yet. However, we can guess that a good working minimum will be 1GB, while 2GB will likely speed things up considerably.
One note for people contemplating moving to AMD systems: AMD is switching sockets for desktop PCs to a 940-pin socket that's not the same as the existing Socket 940. Instead, the new socket, variously dubbed "M2" or "AM2", will replace socket 939. CPUs built for these sockets will support DDR2/667 memory, so the PC industry will finally be moving to a single memory standard, at least for the time being. The switch to the new socket infrastructure won't happen until Summer, so if you want DDR2 support, waiting is a good idea. Continued...
