It's alive. For full specs and final pricing, see the first post.



I matched the 45nm quad with an Asus SLi board. The only trouble I had was the shipped bios was not ready for this chip. I had to upgrade / flash the mobo, which I've never done before.

1. download the new bios from Asus
2. reformat a spare USB jump drive
3. unzip Asus bios, drag 2 files out and onto USB drive
4. start up the system, go into the system bios screen
5. Tools > EZFlash > update

After that, the chip fired right up. Windows XP installed in 25 minutes and I was able to configure the SLi shortly after.

The hardest part of this entire install was figuring out the Antec case. I've NEVER used something this well built and thought through. There were no instructions, so I sat there dropping clips and sorting screws until midnight. (started at 10pm)

The last things I need to do are:
1. install apps (Norton's, Adobe CS, MS Office, etc)
2. install the wireless card
3. install the Bluetooth keyboard
4. strip the old PC of extra components (2 SATA HDD's, 1 DVD-R)
5. setup the Harmon Kardon crap
6. run the mobo's optical audio out to the home theater
7. run the video card's DVI output to the TV's HDMI input