In case you’ve missed the hype that’s been blowing in from the Pacific Northwest, and blanketing most of the country, Microsoft’s latest operating system, Windows Vista, is making its consumer debut on January 30.

While the tech giant made Vista available to businesses last November, the real push will be on the consumer launch, as most businesses like to wait at least a year to make wholesale changes to their technology platforms. So while you’re likely going to need to wait for your IT department to decide when to deploy Vista on your business machine, should you follow their lead, or go ahead and upgrade now?

The first thing to take into consideration is how tricked out your current system is. My desktop, which was pretty much state of the art when I purchased it four years ago, and which I should point out, continued to run Windows XP like a champ, has definitely slowed down a bit since I began running Vista last month. And a 3-year-old notebook, which again, ran XP with no problems whatsoever, really strained under the technical demands of Vista.

So how much horsepower do you need? First, you should run Microsoft’s Windows XP Upgrade Advisor (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/upgradeadvisor/default.mspx), which will give you reasonable recommendations on your system, including your peripherals (scanners, printers and the like).

Though Microsoft’s bare-minimum system configuration (Windows Vista Capable) calls for a processor of at least 800MHz, with 512MB of RAM, and a graphics processor that is DirectX 9 capable (which you’ll likely have, unless your computer is more than 5 years old, in which case it’s not a sure thing), you’ll definitely want more than that. Given my experience, I recommend that you be closer to the Microsoft specs for a “Premium Ready PC,” which includes a minimum of a 1GHZ processor, 1GB of RAM, and 128MB of graphics memory. Anything less than this will likely mean you won’t be able to take advantage of all of Vista’s snazzy new features, and that your system may run slowly in comparison to how it performed with Windows XP.

Once you’re confident you have enough PC to run Vista, you’ll need to figure out which version is right for you. With Windows XP, consumers only had to concern themselves with two options—Professional or Home. Now, there are a total of four flavors of Vista that most buyers will need to decide between—Home Basic, Home Premium, Business and Ultimate (a fifth version, Vista Starter, will be available in 119 emerging markets, not including the United States, Canada, or other “high income markets as defined by the World Bank,“ and a sixth, Vista Enterprise, is available for large corporate users). The prices for the versions range from $199 ($99 for an upgrade from XP) for Home Basic to $399 ($259 for an upgrade) for Ultimate.

In reality, most home and small business users will likely want to go with either Home Premium $239/$159) or Business ($299/$199). Both versions provide most of the bells and whistles you’re likely to care about, including the glitzy new “Aero” interface, which among other things, lets you flip through visual representations of all of your open programs. All versions are expected to be far more secure than previous versions of Windows (including an enhanced firewall, to protect your system from online intrusion), although of course, only time will tell. Vista also provides a far cleaner Start Menu, and the ability to type in just a few words of a file name or search phrase, and see a list of all matches from across all of your programs (including system files, Office documents, e-mails, etc.). You will also encounter similar functions grouped together, so for example, on your notebook you will access the Mobility Center, in which you can adjust settings for items including your power, wireless connectivity and external displays.

If you’re accustomed to using Apples, you’ll probably note that a lot of these items sound familiar—and you would be correct. In fact, Microsoft played quite a bit of catch-up with Vista, but the fact of the matter is, these are still very nice improvements, whether they’re wholly original or not.

So should you upgrade? If you’re confident that your system can handle Vista—without spending money on upgrading your hardware—then assuming you’re a bit of a geek (and you wouldn’t be reading this column if you weren’t), you won’t be disappointed. However, if your system is on the borderline, and upgrading means you would sink more money into adding items like RAM or a new graphics card, I would say hold off for now. When the time comes to buy a new system, Vista will come standard, which not only saves you the hassle of performing the upgrade, but by then, Microsoft will no doubt have dealt with some of the early bugs that are sure to arise.

Josh Taylor is a contributing editor to ZDNet's AnchorDesk and is the author of ZDNet's Hits & Hype column. In addition to his work for Frequent Flyer magazine, Josh is a contributor to Fortune Small Business and CNET.com. Josh also worked as the sports producer for the now-defunct Microsoft Sidewalk (New York) and as the editor of (the equally defunct) George Magazine Online. Josh's frequent flyer program of choice is United's Mileage Plus, though he's cutting it close to if he wants to maintain his Premier Executive status this year. So, if there's a bald guy sitting next to you on your next United flight, playing with some new gadget, there's a decent shot it's Josh. Be sure to introduce yourself. Josh can be reached at FFeditor@oag.com.