Redmond's scared to death of a further drop in market share. With that in mind, Windows 7 likely won't see an update until service pack 1 in late 2010. As I've mentioned, the Release Candidate works flawlessly and so there's no reason to believe that the actual release will be any different.
If you want to make sure that you're good for a couple of years, go with 2 gigs of RAM, a multi core (dual or quad core) processor, and at least 300GB hard drive. Blu-ray is here to stay but unless you are going to invest in a HD monitor, you don't need it. Blu-ray burners are still priced a little high and haven't been widely adopted. I prefer AMD processors but they tend to be a little quirkier so I'd stick will Intel based on what you're saying.
I've used Tiger Direct (both .ca and .com) and don't have a single complaint. If you have a monitor that you can hold onto from your previous system (and there's no reason at all why you shouldn't,) Tiger direct has a system on sale right now that will be Windows 7 ready with 3GB RAM, and 320GB hard drive for $329.99 at
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4527899&CatId=2630 The comparable specs on the cheapest clearence Mac are 1GB RAM, 250GB hard drive, (exact)same processor for $999.00
The only thing is that if you buy it now, instead of in July or August, you'll need to buy your own Windows 7 when it's released. As I mentioned before, wait until the upgrade program is announced at whatever retailer you're going with. They'll have a ton of systems on sale to co-incide with that announcement.
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http://canadianopera.blogspot.com/