I have a cunning plan...

I've come to the conclusion that its a lost cause getting Vista to run on my current hardware. I tried 5472 last night and it still has the same problem. I'm guessing an RC1 build will be out before the end of the month, so I'll dutifully try it but I'm not expecting anything.

What I think has happened is a misunderstanding/miscommunication with the MS developers. They keep flagging my compatability bugs as "Fixed" and I now think they mean "fixed" as in "it now wont let you even try if it wont work, thus there is no longer an actual error" whereas what I wanted for "fixed" is a "we've now changed whatever so that your hardware is compatible and it'll now install fine".

So, what with an interesting offer on the table and my general frustration at not getting any D3D10 action I think its time to consider building a new machine.

I start a new job in September and I'll be earning lots of money. I'm sure people reading this earn more, but needless to say for someone in my position it'll do nicely [grin]

I wanted to save up some money until I could afford a real powerhouse machine. My current one was top-of-the-line when I bought it 3 years ago and was an investment that paid off. I'd like to buy some good kit and see it last.

I was hoping to wait until Vista came around (Jan-Feb '07) and shook up the market before I bought anything. My cunning plan was to hope that IHV's would release new toys that'd either be a better purchase or would make existing decent purchases that much cheaper.

I was reading this page over at TomsHardware this morning that states:

Quote:

LGA 775 (Intel Pentium 4, Pentium D, Celeron, Core 2 Duo) LGA775 is an excellent choice for performance enthusiasts. It will also host Intel's first quad core Kentsfield processor later this year, but a bus speed increase to 333 MHz (FSB1333) is likely, so you will need a new motherboard.

The last sentence is a bit concerning, but I'm wondering if I could get away with buying a LGA775 board and a cheap CPU and then, when "Kentsfield" comes out, I can drop the cheap CPU and put in something with a bit more grunt.

Its about this time that I wish I'd spent more time keeping upto speed on the latest hardware developments [headshake]