I've looked into this for quite some time as I bought a new system last august, which, according to the adviser tool is capable of running the top version of Vista. It reported only a few potential problems which I could probably live with. However, I have always been advised not to install a new OS as soon as it is released as
Microsoft use the final release as a final test of the system by the public. Now this may or may not be fair comment but it does kinda ring true. I know that Vista is new "from the bottom up" but it still looks like a tarted up version of XP. I have not seen anything that will benefit me re-mortgaging the house to buy a copy as yet and I will certainly wait until service pack 1 is released before I contemplate changing.