Well, you'd have to patch it and it's not exactly an automatic process, but it's possible to get it working under Win 7 and Win 8 : http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=113161476

For more general considerations on retrogaming under Win 8, see here : http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=113161476 . It's not a nightmare, rather a question of occasional differences. As far as I am concerned, I stay with Win 7 because I have no issue with the games I have in portfolio. Anyway, I decided to skip one version out of two since the Millenium debacle ;-)

If you can get windows 8 for free, definitely go with it. It's faster and more reliable than 7 for the most part, just install something to add start button and you'll be fine.

I've finally managed to find out the missing info about the Hyrican's mainboard. It's a Gigabyte GA-B85M-HD3 (Chipset Intel® B85 Express). Is that an acceptable choice?

I'm a PC builder, but some people need to understand that not everyone wants the headache or pressure of putting together a system. If he builds it himself he has like five or so different companies for warranty work if something is faulty. He also has to determine which part is malfunctioning, which can be a PITA even if you have a lot of PC building experience. If he buys an off the shelf system and has a problem with any of the parts he contacts one company. Whether that company is a reliable one is a different story.

As far as the put together system from ebay or whatever that German forum is. If you go that route, avoid that cheap power supply. You want a name brand power supply with a little more power than that. The motherboard is a cheap brand and so is the memory. I'm not that concerned with the memory.

Oops, my bad :http://www.pcworld.com/article/2013991/retro-gaming-challenge-windows-8-versus-classic-pc-games.html

From what I heard or read, problems arise with games using old Directdraw instructions. They will play slower than expected, mainly

Yeah, this.

Plus, these days from what I've seen you really don't save a lot of money by going down the self-build route. Profit margins are very low for PC manufacturers these days, plus they get economies of scale that the individual system builder can't - e.g. they will get their graphics cards / processors / whatever a lot cheaper as they buy, say, 50,000 of them at a time... If you're really prepared to spend the time researching and hunting down bargains you may save some money, but I don't think it's enough to make self-building a no-brainer.

Personally, I've built and upgraded a few of my own PCs over the years, and also work in desktop support so I deal with PCs and components day in, day out. And you know what? Nowadays I just wouldn't bother building my own. Much quicker and easier to get one off the shelf or built for me.

I'm quite set on buying the pre-built PC mentioned in the OP, rather than build one myself. Although the motherboard and power supply used in that probably aren't that good either, but everything else seems really good for the price. Any opinion on these, are they totally horrible or still acceptable?

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-HD3 (Chipset Intel® B85 Express)
Power supply: LC-Power LC-500H-12 500 Watt

(You can see more details about the other components, if you search the page I linked to for "Datenblatt" and click on that word. Sorry for the German!)

No experience with the power supply, so probably a low quality one, but Gigabyte makes some good boards and I do use them on occasion. However, you will have a warranty with the system, I assume, so the quality isn't that dire. When the warranty runs out, you may want to consider replacing the power supply.

Warranty is two years with pick-up service. Is there a risk that a power supply of bad quality can damage other components like the graphics card? And quality aside, is 500W generally enough for the build?

Oh, yes. That is why most people agree to get a name brand power supply. If it dies it can take out quite a lot of components. That's one thing I never skimp on myself.

I think that happened to me with my last PC, which incidentally was a Hyrican, too (just not a gaming PC). One hot summer both the graphic card and the power supply died, not sure if at the same time, but from what you say, it seems likely that the power supply took out the graphic card ... :(

Thanks for the advice!

The power supply is from a "grey zone" supplier. Not really a "no name = crap" model, yet in the cheap range. It retails for 25€. I didn't find anything on that model, but a French magazine reviewed the 550W version and found it to be a rebranded / relabelled 400W Huntkey PSU ! I'd avoid it...

The motherboard is a recent model, as you would expect with a Haswell CPU. It was released in June. Entry level boards are usually based on H81 chipsets. B85 chipsets are just above that. Then the upper tier is based on H87/Z87 chipsets Gigabyte used to be ok, but nowadays MSI, Asus and even some Asrock tend to do better.

Just to give you an idea, I would advise something like this :

[url=http://www.ankermann-edv.de/PC-Laptop/ANKERMANN-PC-Ordinateur/ANKERMANN-PC-GTX-ELITE-i5-4670-4x3-40GHz-|-NVIDIA-GeForce-G::9919.html]http://www.ankermann-edv.de/PC-Laptop/ANKERMANN-PC-Ordinateur/ANKERMANN-PC-GTX-ELITE-i5-4670-4x3-40GHz-|-NVIDIA-GeForce-G::9919.html[/url],

It has a certified PSU from a reputable supplier and a premium motherboard

You would probably to configure it, adding the OS of your choice, a better CPU cooler and a back fan . If needed you can reduce the price by opting for a B85 Motherboard or a 4430 CPU

Thanks for the suggestion, but I guess I wouldn't be able to reduce the price to a level that can compete with the 699,- of the Hyrican which is already a lot for me. I'm just going to go with what jjsimp suggested and take care of the Hyrican's weak spot in two years, when the warranty runs out, by replacing the power supply - which should still come cheaper than any of the current alternatives. Regarding performance, the Hyrican is probably too good already for my humble needs, especially considering that I won't be able to play the most recent AAA games anyway, due to my chronic DRM allergy. ;)