The release of new operating systems brings lots of good cheer-and hope. For this New Year, we have Windows Vista. Admittedly, Vista's interface is spiffy and it has a bunch of interesting applications, widgets and tools bundled in. Under the hood it has new technologies that promise to speed up computing.

The catch is that you'll probably have to upgrade your current machine to run the full monty. Microsoft specifies a 1GHz CPU with 1GB RAM equipped with a graphics card featuring 128MB RAM, and 40GB hard disk space to run Windows Vista Premium. But, we all know from experience that this is perhaps the minimum requirement-you'll probably need much more RAM (perhaps 2GB) and a faster CPU. So, laptop users planning and OS upgrade are likely out of luck.

For desktop folks, the situation isn't as dire. You could conceivably change the motherboard and CPU, or just upgrade memory and get by. But, if you are planning to buy a new desktop, then be prepared to shell out more for a higher spec box.

Not that anyone is forcing you to buy or upgrade to Vista today. But I anticipate that over the next twelve to eighteen months we'll see an increasing number of software applications that are written to benefit from the technologies in Vista. Also predictably, these vendors will cut back on support for older versions of software, including patches and upgrades. For instance, we already know that many existing anti-virus packages will not work with Vista.

However, new operating systems are occasional events. Vista has come nearly five years after Windows XP-and the next version won't be here for at least another three years. Meanwhile, we've managed comfortably to suck up all available computing resources with a host of new uses for the desktop-and kept the upgrade cycle running.

Take for example MP3 audio and streaming video. Both are notorious CPU and disk space hogs. To run decent video you need a good processor-ergo, an upgrade. And perhaps a memory upgrade as well for watching movies and playing games. Dual core or quad core, we'll find a way to use all that CPU power. Only it won't go into word processing or spreadsheets.

Got a digital camera? Then you undoubtedly have digital photos by the hundreds on disk. Add music, movie clips and email-with its multifarious and sundry attachments-and you've soaked up gigabytes of storage in wink. So, you no longer need an excuse to upgrade to a bigger, faster hard disk. The problem is so pernicious that users are installing multiple hard disks in their PCs-and half a terabyte (500GB) of storage no longer evokes awe and respect. While it is a good thing is that disk storage is becoming cheaper by the day, I suspect we will probably never have enough of it.

Worried about losing your data? Just take backups to DVD-since the 650MB CD is probably not enough. DVD drives and media are cheap, and 8.4GB capacity is just about enough. Wait another twelve months, and you'll be able to upgrade to a 50GB Blu-Ray drive. Can't be bothered with backups? Just buy more hard disks and connect them in a RAID configuration. It is simple and quick, since the motherboard has the required controllers.

If you are investing in a new machine this year, it would be prudent to forecast your needs and buy an appropriate PC- perhaps one that allows easy upgrades in the future without rendering obsolete whatever you have today. At the same time, don't over-spend-prices of PC components tend to decline over time.

So, there's not much point in splurging lots of money on hardware which you will not need for another year. And no, there is isn't any way to avoid playing the upgrade game-unless you intend to sit on the sidelines.