If .NET is dead or dying, that would mean that the companies that use it are moving to another platform. So, what platform are they moving to? The only reason that you get this impression from reading the CodeProject discussion boards is because people love to make themselves seem smart, and bashing .NET seems to be one way to do that for some. You need to look no further than this thread to see the phenomenom in action. You ask a legitimate question about your concern with .NET and the discussion ends up talking about other platforms until it ends up with the ever-tiring COBOL discussion. NOTE: This sequence of events could have been predicted by any number of the smart people that read this board.

Scott Hanselman (a very famous software developer) created a very nice article about building the Ultimate Developer Rig. Although his intention was not for gaming, there is plenty of intelligent discussion about why he chose each component and how much he paid (all from NewEgg, I think). I used his article as sort of a basis for my machine that I just built and I couldnt be happier. I ended up in the $1400 range, but the prices keep dropping. Here is a link to his article: http://www.hanselman.com/blog/TheCodingHorrorUltimateDeveloperRigThrowdownPart1.aspx[^] Erik