Shoot! I hope sincerely no one is going to need my experiences as a solution to their comp probs!! In fact, I hope it gets more troublefree in the coming years.
Ack!- Zip drives, XP, cheapo IDE cables, shorted connectors... I really hope QC improves as the doityourselfer market matures. A respectable mobo company like DFI should print a REAL manual with their products, like HP should fuggedaboud game machines and produce a decent calculator again... minus trendy and chintzy cosmetics...
... nah, too much to ask for! I guess I should write down my system building travails, uh, experiences on paper...