Within the next few weeks my mother will be buying a new computer. Alot of the stores aound here have compaq, HP and Acer brand name computers. I am getting conflicting information that if you formate the hard drive of a compaq that you will loose acess to your bios, and other such problems. Does anyone know if this is true? I hear this is not a problem with Acer.

Aditionaly, If I buy say a computer and later on decided to buy a beter burner or a biger hard drive, can I put these new components in without problems just as I can with a generic home built computer. I also wounder what does it mean if a computer such as an IBM comes with an OEM version of an operating system, does this mean I cannot install my own operating system if I buy the upcomeing longhorn when its relased?

If i get a computer with builtin videa or built in audio, is it true that if I were to buy my own videa card or sound card that it can have conflicts with the built in stuff. Or does this depend on the motherboard?