[wonderwes]

The technology of desktops is going to change within the next 12 months. There is now a movement on the dual core processors, you will see pc's with the cell chip that is also on the playstation3, and I think Intel will release a new style of chip. Its hard to say.

Windows Vista is still in the works. It will be an improvement for high end gaming, not sure what other advancements there are.

It depends on what you really need out of your desktop. Is it only poker related, or do you also play games on it? What type of music? Just playing mp3s or doing high end audio editor applications? Plus its hard to say when we dont know the specs of your current machine.

Dell does offer some cheap deals. Plus, any computer can be sold on ebay easily. If it still has the warranty included with it, it will sell at a high price on ebay. A P4 with a 1gig of ram will be a fast machine. The p4's are still quite a fast processor, that have been around for over two years now.

If you do decide to buy one, dell always puts out slick coupon codes. Though, you could also build your own pc.