A lot of interesting points are being made. @msfan1289: Not stupid at all. I'm currently running xp on a system that would probably choke on windows 7 or 8. But like I said this is part of a larger upgrade. When I'm finished, I'll be using an intel i5 3570k processor on a Gigabyte GA-z77X-UD5H mobo with a 500 Gb hdd and Corsair Vengeance 8 Gb RAM. The video card is a GeForce 9800 GT (to be upgraded later) and my ps will be a Kingwin Lazer Platinum Series 550w. Also, I was wondering if anyone remembered when Windows 7 came out, whether retail stores offered slashed prices on Windows Vista? Thanks!

I'm currently running windows XP and have been thinking about upgrading to windows 7. I know windows 8 will be released soon but I just don't care for it. There's nothing wrong with it from a technical standpoint, it's just designed for tablets and I own a desktop. I also don't care at all for whatever they're calling metro these days. My question is: will there will be any great deals on windows 7 when windows 8 is released? Should I just bite the bullet and upgrade to windows 8? I know upgrades will be like $40 till January, but like I said, I would really prefer windows 7. This will be part of a much larger upgrade (mobo, processor, and memory) Anyone heard anything about upcoming windows 7 prices? Thoughts? Thanks in advance!

I plan on upgrading my pc soon and had a couple of quick questions, so I thought I'd ask the experts. I was going to go with a Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H LGA 1155 mobo with an Intel i5 3570k processor and Corsair Vengeance 8gb 1600 memory. My video card is a Nvidia 9800 GT (yes, I know it's old, but I plan to upgrade that later). The problem is, I love my case. It's a Cooler Master Mystique (www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119129). They don't even make them anymore. Will this new hardware fit in the old case? I plan to go with the stock fan and don't plan to do any overclocking. My second question is whether my PSU will be adequate with the new setup. It's an older Cooler Master 500w power supply (www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171018). I've read that most PC builders these days are going for 650w PSU's, but then I read that most systems nowadays don't use anywhere near that power. When I eventually upgrade my video card, I'm won't be using SLi. Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Not that long ago, I upgraded my graphics card from a Geforce 7600 GT KO to a BFG Geforce 9800 GT (thanks to the recommendation of some very smart people on this very forum). I'm very happy with it, but I knew when I bought it that it would bottleneck my system because of my CPU. Now however, I'm ready to upgrade my CPU as well. Unfortunately, this seems even trickier than upgrading my graphics card. I'm currently running with an AMD Athlon X2 Dual Core Processor BE-2300, with 2 GB of RAM, a 500W power supply, and Windows XP SP 3. I was wondering if anyone could recommend a new CPU, that would work with my chipset (a nVidia nForce 6100-405/430) and motherboard (an ECS GeForce6100SM-M), and not put me in the poor house. I was hoping to spend less than $300. I was also wondering if this was even possible and/or practical. Would a significant upgrade to a recent chip mean I would have to upgrade my mobo as well and thus (probably) my OS? Would it be more cost-effective just to build an almost entirely new machine (which I can't really do atm)? Thanks in advance for any recommendations and/or advice.

Great list. I've been using a geforce 7600 GT KO for a few years but it's time to upgrade. I'm have a 2.7ghz Athlon x2 dual core with 2gb of memory and a 500w power supply (running windows xp of course). I've been doing research for a while and have narrowed it down to either an eVGA geforce 9600 GT SSC (I couldn't find the SSC model on the list) or something from the geforce 8800 series, which I noticed were higher on the list, or at least higher than the standard 9600 GT. Which would be better? I want the most bang for my buck (an under $200 if possible), but I also don't want something that'll bottleneck the system. Thanks for any help!