putting Steam on a new PC

[Fissh]

So I've got a shiny new powerful PC and want to put on stuff like half-life 2 and CSS etc.

Now I have all the discs and such guff, but if I install them all on the new PC and use the same CD keys surely it will give me an error? or not let me play them online?

Just wondering what I should do

[Swirl]

You do have a steam account right? You register the codes to the account, not the computer, so all you need is to install steam on your new computer and login with your account and then start to download the games. :D

Alternatively [more complicated option] you can copy all of the data from your old steam folder into the new steam folder to minimise the amount you have to download.

But you don't need to worry about the cd keys because they are registered to the steam account and not the computer.

[Martinus]

Do you not need to 'backup' your installation files from steam prior to copying them to another machine?

I'd check but I cannot install Steam for moral reasons.

[Timmeh]

You don't need to back anything up. Just hop over to http://steampowered.com/ and download the client. Sign in to your current steam account and you can re-download all the games. You can back stuff up and move it over, but I'd only really suggest doing that if you have a very slow connection, however.