Which OS/Graphics Card combi?

I should have done this earlier and saved myself a whole heap of grief, but hindsight is always 20/20

Up until beginning of Feb I was able to use SL quite happily with the following specs:
(probably not conclusive, but hopefully enough for you to get an idea)

Intel Pentium 4 630 Prescott (3.00 Ghz)
1024 MB DDR RAM (2x512MB) PC3200
ATI Radeon X600 256MB
XP Home Ed

Unfortunately the machine was killed outright after my cat launched a tactical assault on it - open card reader slots are definitely a liability! On Saturday I purchased a new machine, taking with me the list of SL system requirements, explicitly stating the machine must run SL. I was assured it would, but as you can probably guess, it won't.

New machine specs:

Intel Core 2 CPU 6600 @ 2.40Ghz x 2
2046MB RAM
Radeon X1650 SE PCIE (running 2 monitors)
Vista Home Premium 32 bit

Apart from the tech page stating SL does not support Vista, when I try to open SL I get an error message stating the graphics card is not supported either. As far as I can see I have a few options, but in truth, I do not know which is the best one and need advice:

1. Return the machine (which other than incompatability with SL I am happy with) and try to get one with a compatible graphics card.
- in which case it will almost certainly come preinstalled with Vista (is this a huge problem?)

2. Keep this machine and get new graphics card (must run 2 monitors) and leave Vista installed.

3. As above but remove Vista and return to XP.

So I really need to know which is probably going to be best option. If I get another machine what should I be looking for (processor/cards/memory); if I get a new card, which one; and is there anything I have forgotten?!

Thank you for sticking with this, all advice accepted gratefully.

Well you can either wait until ATI fixes their drivers so it makes vista better. Or install XP again and use the most up-to-date video drivers. Because ATI hasn't fully worked out openGL in vista, you're better off using XP for now when running SL. Or switch to an nVidia card if you want to use vista and SL right now.

Or there's the alternative:

http://www.kubuntu.com/

Thank you for the advice. I am off to get some sleep and will make a decision later today.

this is a common issue with ATI cards and Windows Vista. You need to go to www.ati.com and download the latest drivers for Vista, then there is another thread in the forums Ati - Vista - OpenGL drivers out. on page 11 there is a link to download a Viewer that was compiled by a resident that WILL work with Vista and ATI, called VistaSL. This is what I and many other residents have relied on till ATI and LL get their act together to get the official client working properly on Vista. Hope this helps.