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[Aqizzar]

I've never had any problem with AoE3 on win7, if you get warning use the 'run anyway' option, I do, and I've never had any problems with it.

*I also can run Star Wars: Empire at War and Medieval II: Total War with out problems too.*

...AoE3, Empire at War, and Medieval 2 are definitely not "older" games.  I'm talking about like TIE Fighter and X-Com Apocalypse, stuff from the DOS-to-Windows transitional period, and games that predate wide-screen monitors.  There's no small number of really great games I want to play again, that are all but impossible to play on anything but Windows 98, but the problem there is that trying to run natively in 98 (as an alternate operating system obviously) wouldn't be compatible with the drivers, so the computer would be virtually nonfunctional.  I'm still looking for a solution to that, because it really shouldn't be such a pain in the ass to emulate older Windows software (or indeed, older Windows itself) with newer Windows.

[Zrk2]

I've never had any problem with AoE3 on win7, if you get warning use the 'run anyway' option, I do, and I've never had any problems with it.

*I also can run Star Wars: Empire at War and Medieval II: Total War with out problems too.*

...AoE3, Empire at War, and Medieval 2 are definitely not "older" games.

Well point is, more recent games run fine (although I have had M2TW crash a total of twice over a couple months of heavy use).

[nenjin]

You should be fine Aqizzar. Just be prepared for funkiness. I've gotten everything from TIE Fighter to X-Com running just fine through the recent DosBox on Win7....it's just occasionally you have to troubleshoot issues where you didn't in XP. Getting sound to work for Dungeon Master 2 in DosBox on Win 7 took me about 4 hours to chase down a solution, where I had no troubles in XP.

[Sergius]

You'll have a hard time finding a motherboard that doesn't have *some* graphics chip integrated, so you only really need to be sure it has the PCI-E expansion slot.

It's also a good backup if something bad eventually happens to the graphics card, the thing at least will boot once removed and let you diagnose.

[Aqizzar]

Alright, I've run out of time on this computer-shopping business, and I'll be heading to Fry's this afternoon to buy a new tower cold.  I need to decide between an Acer and an HP with very similar stats.  They're almost ludicriously overpowered for what I actually need, except for graphics obviously, but they both have PCI-E slots so they won't be a long-term liability.  They seem to be pointedly similar in capability, but all the technical details are slightly different - NVidia vs ATI integrated chipsets DDR3 Dual-Channel vs PC3-10600 DDR3.  I have no idea what most of that actually means, but I'm leaning towards the HP.

Anybody have any experience this products like these?  I'm honestly just going on an internal brand comparison, and I'm not really worried about getting the absolute best deal at this point.

[lordnincompoop]

Just looking at the components, I think you should go for the Acer.

The CPU model is slightly better (a 645 vs 640 in this case), and has more init RAM (speeds are identical). The higher RAM cap on the HP is irrelevant, as nobody will need 16GB anyways. The integrated graphics are, at a glance, similarly powered, and as you'll be buying a separate card it won't matter.

[white_darkness]

My vote would be for the HP.  More PCI-E x1 slots.  Except for graphics, every expansion card is pretty much an x1.  The Acer only has 1, and the HP has 3.  More flexibility.

.1 GHz of processing power probably won't be much of a big deal anyway.  Except maybe for dwarf fortress.

*edit*

Oh well, too late...probably...

[Rose]

nobody will need 16GB anyways.

Correction: Nobody without my job.

I got 12 right now and run out.

[Aqizzar]

Turned out to be neither of them.  The Acer I picked out was a slim-line with no room for a real graphics card.  I wound up picking a bigger, similar Acer for a few more bucks.  I also had to buy a 600watt(?) power supply to put in it with the GTX 460 graphics card, because the stockbox came with a fucking 300.  Who even makes 300 power supplies anymore?

Point is, I spent a little more than I wanted to, but I have (the parts for) an ass-kicking, face-melting, graphics-annihilating tower that will last me for at least a few years.  So, matter closed.

Hopefully...

[Aqizzar]

So yeah, double post.  But I'm assembling this computer, and the graphics card just fits into the case along with the TV tuner and everything else.  However, I'm wondering just how I'm supposed to hook it up to the power supply.  There's no diagram for what wires to use.  It's not a matter of confusion or missing parts, it's because with the wires that the card came with and my new power supply, I have enough cables to supply power to the card twice over, since it has two power ports right next to each other.  Is that good, bad, dangerous, or necessary?

My new power supply also doesn't have enough of the right plugs to hook up one of the CD drives, but that's no big deal.

[Rose]

Ideally, both power ports on the graphics cars should be filled. If there's matching plugs on the power-supply, then use them. if there isn't, only then should you use the crappy adaptor that comes with the card.

[Sergius]

Any two power cables will do, but don't use the same one if it has a splitter and your card asks for 2 wires. Use two separate ones coming from the power source.

[Darkone]

Be careful on the PSU. Link it in here so we can look at it, and see if it's good or needs to be returned.
There's shit standardization in PSU's, so it may or may not have enough oomph on the 12v rails. As for the computer you picked, it's good that it has 6GB of RAM, because I've run out with 4 before while playing X3:TC.
fakeedit: Oh piss, just realized you already got it. Welp, the following is still useful, I guess.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I hope I don't come by as insulting, but putting computers together yourself is basically foolproof if someone has already checked your parts. The "planned obsolescence" (nothing planned as far as processors go. Things just move so fast they outstrip the interface)  works in your favor, as you can't really plug anything in where it won't fit. With mine, I had more physical problems than anything else, like getting everything inside the case, reaching the main power from the bottom mounted PSU to the motherboard, etc.

Some general stuff-
If you want ~100$ for a processor, i3 all the way. I have a AMD Athlon II x4, but it can actually be beat or matched on quite a few quad+ threaded benchmarks by the i3 at stock, not even speaking of OCing or single and dual threaded crap.

For the card, Tom's has the best reference, really. I would recommend going up to GTX460 or the such. It's "only" 150$, and will run just about anything on high.

PSU - Building your own, or upgrading a premade, you will need to replace this. Premades tend to have PSU's barely able to handle the system. Look for something with good ratings on newegg, and read the systems people have running on them. 600w+ with ~40+ amps on the 12v rail(s) is where to start. Reviews are your friends here, nothing is really to the same measurement.

Motherboard - pick features, price range, choose one with best reviews. Pretty simple. Try and look for USB3.0 support. Make sure it has PCI-e 16x 2.0 or newer. Apparently there's a 2.1 spec or something, CBA to look, but it will be compat with 2.0. 4-6 ram slots is nice. **DDR3 compat is a must**

RAM - Once again, reviews on newegg. 4GB bare minimum for a gaming rig. Considering I've seen ~400$ premade computers with 5 gigs (no clue why 5) of DDR3, this is pretty easy to get. DDR3 compat is a must, why? Cheaper, faster. DDR2 is falling out of production, so it will be much more expensive soon.

[Aqizzar]

I hope I don't come by as insulting, but putting computers together yourself is basically foolproof if someone has already checked your parts. The "planned obsolescence" (nothing planned as far as processors go. Things just move so fast they outstrip the interface)  works in your favor, as you can't really plug anything in where it won't fit...

Pin-types, pin-types, pin-types, pin-types, pin-types.  Of course the bulk parts are relatively universal, as long as you've got enough space-in-the-case.  RAM, processors, and the graphics all have to be compatible with the motherboard, and every time I have ever tried to upgrade a computer, I always find out my motherboard and/or processor-type is six-months out of production and therefore almost-not in stock anywhere.  Because apparently everybody in the world but me does a total system overhaul every five months, or something, so fuck keeping older-type parts in the market.

As for the PSU, it's a Coolmax V600.  Coolmax are good people, so I'm not too worried about it.  I'm more worried about the graphics, since it's an Nvidia license made by some company called "Palet", which even the salesman had no experience with, since they're apparently brand new.  I haven't had a chance to stress it yet, since Steam refuses to log in properly twice in a row.

[white_darkness]

nobody will need 16GB anyways.

Correction: Nobody without my job.

I got 12 right now and run out.

12?  CAD? Hard core graphic design?  Attempting to plot the gravitic waves of black holes?