After a lot of dispute about the hardware requirements for Windows Vista, Dell, the largest PC maker in the world is recommending two of its models for future migration to Windows Vista for home office users.

On its website the company suggests a desktop PC priced at $1750 and a laptop at $2700, but stresses that it does not support beta versions of software. Other recomendations are made in categories, Small Business, and Medium to Large Business.

The PC is the XPS 600, specification :

Intel Pentium Extreme Edition Dual Core Processor with HT Technology
1GB of 533MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM
256MB PCI ExpressTM x16 NVIDIA GeForceTM 6800 Graphics Card
160GB1 Serial ATA 7200 RPM Hard Drive

The laptop is the XPS M170, specification :

Intel Pentium M Processor 760 (2GHz, 2MB Cache, 533MHz FSB)
1GB2 of 533MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM
256MB NVIDIA GeForceTM Go 6800 ULTRA with PCI Express x16 Graphics
80GB1 Ultra ATA Hard Drive

These specs are in line with the higher end of speculation about hardware requirements for running Vista, as reported here. As Microsoft says, though, the operating system will automatically scale with the resources it finds on a computer. At the lower end, an XP-like UI will present itself.

Anyone buying a computer now and wishing to upgrade to Vista next year, should seek something similar to the Dell specs before shelling out on an inadequate model. Microsoft is also recommending that users consider upgrading their monitors to larger, higher-resolution models.