So I go to Cnet and test if my PC will be able to take it..
It says no, unless I upgrade video card and a few other items.

Basically have a dual core?? or 64 bit?? cpu....

I have a generic PC box. I bought a biostar board and it came with an AMD that is a 1500 or something..
I put my own 2 hard drives and two dvd drives plus memory and had it up and running . I have had it for about 3 years.

Is it possible to just buy a mother board and cpu combo and replace mine then get a nice video card??

How do I tell what type of board will go into it..

If you need more info please let me know.

This may not be answering your question but I'm going to say it anyways.

I would not put Vista on a machine I relied upon until they come out with service pack 1.

At my company we plan on waiting a year before we roll out Vista on regular desktop machines that can support it.

All that being said.. I have played with Vista and like what I see. My company deals with Media Center peripherals and installing Vista Ultimate on a "Vista Capatible" machine has been a breeze since the final version of Vista has become available.

go to tigerdirect.com and research their combos. Most already have an onboard video card. What's the rush to switch to Vista? I would just install XP and wait until you need a new system... As for what will fits your system it depends on your case. Most larger cases will take an ATX board. The real question is will your RAM work and other items that you want to keep.

Yeah I understand about windows programs and should hold off alittle while. So they can get it situated.

I tried a buddies new PC with 1 gig ram and dual core setup.. Ran so much smoother and I tried to task the hell out of it and it didn't skip a beat..
right now if i have a big program running like nero(burning a dvd) it is slower than cold molases. Plus other progs.. I figured if I get a board I should get one that could handle vista when I "upgrade" later on..

Hey, bud. I gotta agree with Pop's 72 on the Vista thing. Granted, I can't talk, I'm playing with it because it's my job :D, but ... give it at least 6 months for them to iron out most of the initial wrinkles before installing.

As for your setup...

Windows XP is not very "portable". That is, to say, it doesn't take kindly to people swapping motherboards. In particular, there is a little chip on your motherboard called an "IDE controller" - this basically handles all of the transactions with your hard drive and other IDE devices. When XP is installed, it makes a note of the IDE controller type and goes along its merry way. It's near to impossible to find two motherboards using the same IDE controller, so when you swap out the motherboard, and you try to boot up XP, it looks around, can'd find the IDE controller that was there on the initial install and says, "OMG WTF?!" and blue-screens (BSOD) or says there is no bootable OS/drive/whatever.

This is nothing a "repair install" from the original XP disc will not fix. Here's where a lot of people get snagged though: They either don't have the original install disc OR their original install disc is OEM (i.e. it came with the computer from a custom-builder or major manuf'er like Dell, etc.). Quick and easy way to figure out if you got an OEM copy: Go into the Control PAnel. Double-click the System Icon (if there is a note on the left of the Control Panel to "Switch to classic view", click that and the System Icon should appear on the right with a bunch of other icons.). In that first "General" tab of the system menu, you should see something like this, where "OEM" is in the middle of the digits on the line below "Registered to:" like this:

http://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/vis/vit/critical/my_computer-propertiesxp.GIF

Now, here's why I say people get burnt: OEM license is only good for install with one specific motherboard, so when you try to re-activate Windows after the repair install, you'll need to call Microsoft and they'll tell you that your motherboard changed and the OEM license is not good for the new system, and that you need to cough up $159 :D

Ok, since I rambled, does any of this make sense?

PS - I suppose I could be wrong, but I am quite positive that Vista will operate in 32-bit mode or 64-bit mode.

yeah Shifty I know what your saying.. I don't have an OEM copy. I had already gone through the head ache before of swapping motherboards.. I had an older one melt itself. It was a little trial and error to plug in my hard drives on the new board, but i did it..
I figured I could do the same thing. get a new board(copy all needed items off my hardrives) then hook her up and load windows..

What will you be doing with this computer? Also, what is your budget? Also, what are you currently using for a monitor - what size is it and is it a big CRT monitor or a flat panel?

im having all sorts of problems too...
i moved house and all my instalationdisks are missing somewhere in the big pile of boxes in the rear of my storage right at the point two out of my 4 puters whent south softwharewize and the others keep telling me all the time i need to get an original version of win XP at the steep price you mentioned
the reason i want the vista over XP is because it will be supported by microsoft longer than the "old" XP and the softwharepackage will be priced about the same and i was planning on trading all my other computers in for a new one with that version installed on it guess i will wait another half a year to buy it now .

wat i want to do with the new laptop is make it a central computer (laptop) and drive all the diskdrives out of all my old and older computers (bout 6 terabites worth of ide ultra ata and so forth ) in USB2 suported cases .
now i've heared before these USB devices slow the computer down a lot so i was wondering if there's something simulair available that runs on the network without help from windows

What is the "old" XP? If the support shown with Windows versions holds the same pattern, XP will be fully supported for at least another 2-3 years. $50/year for an OS is not that bad, and that's if you buy from Microsoft direct. You can find other copies online for $100 or less from reputable places.

If your copy of XP is telling you that you need to get an original version of XP, then chances are you're using a hacked version, and, yes, you need to go buy one if that is the case. If XP came installed on your computer when you bought it, you need to confront the system builder about this, because they sold a computer to you with a pirated version of XP most likely. If it came from a major manuf'er like Dell, Gateway or HP or something, you need to call their support line to get that cleared up.

i had a hard time understanding your last two sentences. There is something called NAS (network accessible storage) that will allow you to read hard drives over a network. I have never heard of any real slowdowns of Windows using several USB devices on a computer. I have heard a lot of times people having their hard drives die in USB cases because they were cheapskates and bought cases that did not have fans on them - the hard drives cooked themselves. You could buy a drive cage, but they are priced heavy (3ware is a great brand for drive cages and expansion cards).

thanks for the help glad to know the USB doesnt slow down the computer , the lack of fans i think i know how to solve by putting the disks in an old computercase with plenty fans in it and just use the circuitboards of the external usb harddiskcases , this is making it a lot eazier for me thanks again
.
wat i was talking bout old XP i meant it is running for....eeeh 5 years or so now , so the newer vista will be supported 5 years longer from today .
when i do need to buy a new cd because i have a compromized version of xp (my own fault i put the one cd on more than one computer) i rather go for the newest version of windows which at this moment is vista , that is priced simulair to a new cd of XP

You can simply buy XP "license only" and save some bux.

http://www.pricegrabber.com/search.php?form_keyword=XP+license+only&topcat_id=6

There is an example - Pricegrabber is normally a good source - only buy from retailers that have AT LEAST four stars after 1000+ reviews (See this info on the right-hand side of the price list when you click thru to get more info on the product).

I agree that it makes more sense to buy Vista license. But if your computers are old, chances are Vista won't even run on them. The HCL (hardware compatibility list) for Vista is apparently set high. This is typical and traditional - Microsoft isn't stupid - Vista is designed to be very graphical, very cool, very easy on the eyes - they don't want people with outdated computers having a piss-poor experience (more than 2-3 years old is ancient and outdated, really!)

Getting a tall tower with lots of HDD slots in it and using it as you described sounds like it would work. Install a USB hub inside the case with however many USB ports you need (daisy chain, if required) and slap a couple 120mm fans in front of the drive bays and you should be good, low noise. Just make sure the fans draw air or blow air over the drives to keep temps down. This should leave you only needing to hook up one USB cable from your main computer to the USB hub in the drive rack, and the USB hub will dish out the signal to the drives and back. Sounds like a plan :thumbs:

If you can manage to whittle yourself down to 1 main computer, if you have a "Retail" license (not an "OEM" license!) with your original copy of XP, you can call Microsoft and re-activate your key for that 1 computer over the phone and get legit. If you aren't using a legit key, you're probably not even using SP1, and if you're not using at least SP1....no offense, but that's just ignorant :D Everyone should be well established with SP2 at this point.