It is a difficult task. Picking the right computer with just the right specs. It takes a little more than just looking at the speed of the CPU, the size of the card, the amount of ram, etc. (of course, I am speaking of an entry level "PC customizer"...for those hard-core peeps...maybe you remember a similar story from your earlier days...maybe not...).
This entire thing all started when I wanted to play Star Wars: Republic Commando for the PC. Back then, I had some crappy SiS integrated 32 meg card (I didn't even think about cards back then). So, I downloaded the demo, and when I tried playing it, I obviously couldn't. This is only the beginning of my troubles. So, I start shopping around for a new card. I finally find the Nvidia Geforce 4 MX4000 (wow...great choice...let's be compatible with more than 4 games next time)...yea, that didn't go well. I tried playing the game again, and I get a message says: "Your current GPU has pixel shader 1.0 while the game requires pixel shader 1.1 or better to run properly..." (or something to that affect). Wow...so, I live with this horrible card for about 2 more years before I get fed up with it. So, I go out to buy another card, and this time...I'd do more research. I found a pretty good card for the time, the Nvidia GeForce 7600GS (512 Meg APG) card. So...of course...another problem. I insert the card...set it up...all good...no...
I start playing Battlefront on it, and it works great...for the first game, but then I play another round and everything goes haywire (clouds all messt up...shadows all liney...etc.). So, I talk to my friend about it, and he determines that it is either a driver problem (highly unlikely) or that not enough power is getting to the video card...that was the problem. Apparently, being an idiot as I am, I didn't check it...I assumed. I have a Sony Vaio, and apparently they made all these random specs. A 270 Watt power supply when I needed 300 Watts at least to run the card at its requirements...wow...so now, I'm on my hunt for the power supply. I really don't know what I'm looking for on the power supply to find the size (it doesn't say ATX or ATX 12v...just a bunch of random numbers), so if you have any suggestions that'd be great.
So, that's my story as of yet...yes, I was foolish, but it was all one big learning experience, and I'll be more careful for my next computer...enjoy picking me apart in the comments...lol.