Well, Windows Vista is about to come in 2 months, OEM makers have already started releasing Vista Capable PCs, but what about the biggest market out there, the assembled PC market. If u r in the market to buy a new PC which should also be Vista capable, then here are 2 configurations, for both Intel & AMD to get u started on your purchasing, with as low cost as possible
AMD PC
1) Athlon64 3500+ or Athlon64 3800+ X2 AM2, dual core from AMD is quite cheap now
2) 2X512 MB DDR2 RAM with MHz depending on the CPU. 2 GB is good for Vista, but U won’t need 2 GB anytime soon
3) A motherboard with Geforce 61xx chipset, as they are not only quite well balanced, mature in driver, but also have Vista certified Geforce 61xx onboard GPU. Other option would be ATI chipsets, as they are now owned my AMD, u can expect to see some ATI exclusive AMD features soon
Intel PC
1) Core 2 Duo E6300, costs about 9k right now, although availability is low, so I would rather prefer AMD PC then going for a Pentium D based PC, due to temperature difference of the CPU alone & performance wise. If u can buy a core 2 duo, then go for it, E6300 is the lowest possible
2) 2X512 MB DDR2 RAM with MHz depending on the CPU. 2 GB is good for Vista, but U won’t need 2 GB anytime soon
3) A motherboard with Intel 945 chipset with GMA 950 onboard graphics which is Vista certified. Other option is GMAX3000 based Intel 965G chipset. ATI chipsets are good, such as Radeon Xpress but then again, driver support might end in 2 or 3 years
Common components
1) 17” monitor atleast, forget 15” now. A Samsung 17” 713N LCD costs about 10k, if u can buy a LCD monitor, do so
2) Input device, Optical drive, speakers of your choice
3) Onboard audio should be good enough for low cost Computers, if u get one of the new AMD/Intel chipsets, they support HD Audio, which is natively supported in Vista
4) A standalone graphics card is not required to run vista, the above solutions will suffice easily with really low cost. However if u do want to add a cheap graphics card, then look for Geforce 7300GT or Geforce 6600GT or Radeon X1600XT or Radeon X1300 solutions, they cost a max Rs 6000 now
Get ready for Windows Vista: Cheapest Vista compatible PCs
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