Haha, that's awesome. I have the exact same thing. It's a little bulky but it still kicks ass.
No experience with the Zune here but I really don't like the fact that it doesn't have drag-and-drop capability.
Anyhoo, hopefully you find something that suits you OP.
I get artifacts sometimes too when it rains in STALKER and AFAIK it's a fairly common problem. Whenever it happens, I just restart the game and that'll fix it.
A couple of games I've been playing a lot lately:
Rome: Total War
Medieval II: Total War
Technically they're not pure RTS games as there is a turn-based portion in the campaign but the actual battles are real time and can get pretty epic when two large armies collide.
Maybe try burning the CD at a slower speed (ie. 4x)
I remember having some weird problems with installing a N-Lite modified XP installation when I burned the CD at a relatively fast speed.
Um, I think it's your friends that suck because I've used plenty of Antec cases (including the P180 which I'm using right now) and I have nothing but good things to say about 'em.
I say go for the P180. Just make sure you have a compatible PSU.
Another Tribes lover here. It was so ahead of it's time. There was nothing more fun than skiing down hills on your way back to base for a flag cap :D
They really need to make a new one. I never had more fun with a multiplayer game than with Tribes.
Argh, I wish I had some cash right now. I'd so jump on this. It would have came out to $308 shipped, which is $10 cheaper than anywhere else. And if the rebates would go through, it would come out to about $250.
Ah well.