<< If you don't balance the above, and get something like a Geforce 4 (check) and a P4-2.2 system (check) and run that on a 17" monitor (nope) to play Quake 3 (nope), then IMO that is a bit of a waste of money. >>
Well that's pretty much what I'll be running(except I'm getting an AMD) for the next few months. I wouldn't think it a waste of money, though. It might be at this very moment, but not as you move ahead. Basically my counter arguments would be:
1. you don't buy any hardware just for now, but for the next few quarters or even years.
2. there are two kinds of hardware - something you can keep upgrading while preserving your previous investment, e.g. harddrives or memory, and something you have to throw away to upgrade to something new, like video cards. So for the second type you want to make sure whatever you are getting can hold you up well for a while, instead of picking up some seemingly "sweet spot" now, only to find yourself in a bad position in a very short while. And to avoid that, a bit of "overshooting" upfront would be sometimes necessary.
<< Buying for the future is one thing, but if the software to utilize today's top graphics card is 6 or 12 months away, why not wait and spend the same money on a Geforce 4 Ultra or Geforce 5? >>
Well by the time Geforce 5 is out, you can say the same thing still, , because I'm sure when it just comes out, there will be few games out there that would effectively support/leverage it.