Ah, so much to respond to...guess I'll just go in order.
My first thought on reading the system.txt file is that the PSU is extremely bad quality and should be avoided at all costs.
Oh, that bad..., well I'm not quite sure how to go about looking for a PSU of good quality. My current one, the 450 watt, is a Logisys(good quality?). Is it possible that I could just stick with that one or would it be better to go ahead and find one with a higher wattage?
My second is that the motherboard isn't a great choice. Yes, it will support SLI with the two 9800GTs, however I've always found Nvidia chipset based boards to be far inferior to AMD or Intel chipset boards in terms of performance and reliability.
I honestly just chose the nVIDIA chipset because it was listed as SLI ready. I've been using an Intel for the past 6 years.
Alright, which AMD mobo will work with the SLI feature(I'm pretty determined to have the two cards)?
On the Cyberpower site there are only two mobos listed as SLI ready and both of them have nVIDIA chipsets.
(I've attached a list of the available mobos to this post.)
Third, the case is also bad quality (leaving aside aesthetics considerations as everyone will have a different opinion on whether or not it looks nice).
The red lights were so pretty, but I'd rather have a quality case than an aesthetically pleasing one.
So a recommendation?
As for your other questions - two 9800GTs would, assuming a midrange system to match the cards, require a quality 500W PSU or better. The 450W recommendation you quoted is most likely from the board manufacturer or Nvidia themselves - they recommend a higher wattage than necessary. A 9800GT would be fine on a quality 300W PSU although I'd recommend more, however it wouldn't work with, for example. a low quality 500W PSU.
Ah, so I only need to meet the power requirement of one card to run two. I had my current computer custom made by a local repair shop and the 450 watt psu was just what they had on hand at the time. That's how ended up with it.
Compare the different features of the Windows 7 editions before choosing one. Most people do not need the Professional edition - check this link to see what additional features it has over the usual choice of Home Premium.
Looking at the two compared I'm still leaning toward the Pro.
(That XP compatibility mode is really what's pulling me over. I have a lot of things, not just games, that were meant to be run on XP. Some of my stuff is even Win98.)
However, you must understand that I have never actually used a Win7 computer. So when I compare the two versions of it I'm thinking in terms of the differences between XP Home and XP Pro. I'm referring mainly to the administrative rights that drove me insane when I had XP Home. It might have just been the computer I had at that time though.
That last does touch on your last question - older games may not work well on Windows 7. Running them in compatibility mode might help, but I'd be inclined to check around and see what anyone else's experiences are with those games in 7.
Okay, the oldest games I think I have are some Win95/98 games. There are about 10 of them.
From what I could find out using google it seems like the XP mode can run some of them well. The only ones that I've seen some people having trouble with is my 7 game collection of the original The Sims.
Perhaps if you have an XP license you could have a dual boot set up.
I am unfamiliar with dual booting and I don't have an XP license number at my disposal.
Wait, would it be possible to just take my XP hard drive out of my current computer and hook it into the new one along with the Win7 one? Essentially two hard drives running separate operating systems.
Indeed. His, however should acording to this from Tom's Hardware Guide (and indeed AMD).
Alright, so leave the CPU at what it is and it should be able to run the XP mode?
