I agree right now if you can keep your old pc working for you and wait till windows 7 comes out you will be avoiding having to purchase any upgrades. It will be out in about a year. If you have any friends that have pc knowledge likely they could easily help you install a new hard drive and some RAM, these are things I do myself but my first time I was pretty anxious. I also agree that the desktop is generally the best option unless you travel a lot and would need a laptop for that. My sister just asked me the same question and I talked her into a desktop pretty quickly, if you have not used a laptop try asking a friend with one to let you try it out for an hour or so, feel how the keyboard feels, see how you like the touch pad instead of a mouse, etc. If you have any problems seeing also consider the smaller screen of a laptop. I have pretty severe hand problems so using a smaller keyboard would be very difficult. Sitting in a chair with the laptop on your lap would require some type of laptop desk so you do not block the air flow. As stated updating and replacing parts in a laptop is much more difficult. One thing you could definitely do also rather than install a new hard drive in your pc is buy a stand alone usb backup hard drive and move all your thousands of pictures and music and other files and data to that hard drive and free up your hard drive in the pc, if you did that and got rid of any old programs you no longer need, clean out any junk files and folders, empty the recycle bin, defrag the hard drive you may find you have plenty of room on that 80Gig hard drive. I have been seeing some incredible prices lately on usb hard drives so you could easily find a nice size one for around $50, and you could use that stand alone hard drive with any new computer you buy in the future. Plus no one would have to install it for you, you just plug it into your usb port and then you can access it from your pc just like your other hard drive. Add some RAM to what ever belarc says is your limit for that pc or at least 2 gig and I bet you would be surprised. RAM is cheap. I just bought a 1gig stick for one of my computers and it was less than $20 shipped. If your current pc is a desktop I would also highly suggest turning it off unplug it and open the side panel up and clean out all the dust bunnies, that can really affect the performance of a pc. Cleaning the computer and its components ecost has some very good prices right now this search is for under $50 units but it gives you some ideas. well now you have lots of options and ways to go and up to you to make that big decision. Here is a link that might be useful: usb hard drives

I read this forum quite regularly, but rarely post here...But sometimes.... I just gotta say it..... You people are nuts...... I am quite used to people telling me I am nuts and have no idea what I am talking about when it comes to such matters, BUT since I am never, make that NEVER the one who has neither virus/malware issues and problems and NEVER have spent even a dime nor any time on such matters, the reality of the situation is that I and the few other Linux users here are really the only ones who have any idea what they are talking about when it comes to PC Operating Systems and PC "security".... A whole forum of "what should I get","what's wrong" "I bought/installed and/but" "what should I do". Soon many reading this will be thinking "Oh he's just one of those Linux nutscases" But, ask yourself, does he "Buy this", "get this", "do this"......Oh yeah, and then ask yourself if your system can match mine on safety, security, performance. I have yet to have either of these boxes contract a virus or a worm or a root-kit nor any other form of malware, not bad for systems running zero AV/security software..... I very rarely ever disconnect from the W3 and rarely ever even turn either of these things off. I have 4 browsers running right now and my email account has been open for days. Other than an outgoing firewall, I am currently running absolutely zero "security" software of any kind. And no reformatting, no scans, no defrags, no registry anythings. I watch videos, play music, redo photo's, make phone calls and do all sorts of other sometimes fun stuff with neither and never a worry nor a care. And my total investment in Operating Systems and software on both boxes equals zero dollars and zero cents. And all my upgrades/dates are free too..... Do yourselves a big favor and go to distrowatch.com, read about the different flavors of Linux and pick yourself out a few LiveCD versions to trial. Or you can always just wait for MSWin7 to be released and start buying all sorts of new software to go along with your already penetrated and compromised, outdated and obsolete brand new high dollar Operating System. Some of the new Linus distro's are so simple to install and use that my best friends 59 y.o.wife has installed several different versions on the same hard-drive and has figured out how to use them all with little more than dang near no assistance from any body. She has even figured out how to use Knoppix6 full time and save everything she does/wants to a persistant image. Oh yeah, she is really good at kids and cooking and sewing and fishing and growing things and all sorts of DIY stuff, but, when it comes to computers, she has the techno-savvy and training of your average box of rocks..... Dang folks....even my daughter, whose "technotude" is somewhat close to absolutely zero has installed and has everything running and learned the ins and outs of both SimplyMepis and VectorLinux on her PC all by her little ol' self. And while her friends are having regular issues after frequenting such mandatory malware magnet sites as YouTube, and MySpace she has nothing of the sort, ever.... But, if you wanna believe that you must MUST have MSWin-something, feel free to spend way too much for way too little, and want to keep spending and installing/scanning/removing/etc for no other reason than you insist on running something as shaky and insecure as Vista1, hurry up and buy the fix for Vista1, Vista2, otherwise known as MSWin7, that's certainly your right.... Well, let's see...I may have exaggerated things a bit by stating the "free" thing........Getting Linux will cost you somewhere around $.125 for a blank CD-R, or the current cost of a blank DVD-R.... HAGD Here is a link that might be useful: better than MSWindows, IMHO it is anyway

More info: TFC (Temp File Cleaner) will clear out all temp folders for all user accounts (temp, IE temp, java, FF, Opera, Chrome, Safari), including Administrator, All Users, LocalService, NetworkService, and any other accounts in the user folder. It also cleans out the %systemroot%\temp folder and checks for .tmp files in the %systemdrive% root folder, %systemroot%, and the system32 folder (both 32bit and 64bit on 64bit OSs). It shows the amount removed for each location found (in bytes) and the total removed (in MB). Before running, it will stop Explorer and all other running applications. When finished, if a reboot is required the user must reboot to finish clearing any in-use temp files. -- TFC only cleans temp folders. -- TFC will not clean URL history, prefetch, or cookies. Depending on how often someone cleans their temp folders, their system hardware, and how many accounts are present, it can take anywhere from a few seconds to a minute or more. TFC will completely clear all temp files where other temp file cleaners may fail.

You can stream video from Netflix and a number of other companies. Your choices will be more limited that with a physical disc but you don't have to wait. Especially with high definition movies, the picture may not be as good because they need to compress the video to send it over the Internet. Many of these boxes stream much more than movies, you can listen to the radio, watch Podcasts, etc. You may not even need a box. Many new TV's and Blu-Ray players include the necessary software as do game consoles like XBox and Playstation 3. The set-up is no more difficult than connecting a DVD or Blu-Ray player. You do want to be careful to ensure whatever box you choose has the necessary outputs to connect to your TV. The Apple TV, for example, only has an HDMI connection (although most of the others are more flexible when it comes to physical connections). You will also need a high speed internet connection and a home network. As for the future, I think we'll see lots of online content. Although, personally, I really don't get the idea of paying to watch broadcast TV.