This is not a thread crap, just a bit of foreknowledge for anyone interested in this combo. I picked it up a few weeks ago at the Fry's in Wilsonville, OR. store for $199 with the retail boxed CPU. I've built my share of systems from scratch and never had as many problems as with this combo. The onboard network adapter would cease functioning after a few hours of use and refuse to work until a fresh install of Windows. I assumed bad motherboard and exchanged it with no hassle at Frys a week later. Same problem. After several hard drive wipes and Windows installations with exactly the same problem, I finally decided to document each step. This way I was able to locate the exact moment the issue arose. The onboard NIC would stop working immediately after loading the printer drivers (HP DJ930C). I tried Win98 and WinXP a few more times each with the same results. Even after uninstalling the printer drivers the NIC would still not function. I then tried disabling the onboard network adapter and added a PCI card. Windows would recognize the new card, drivers loaded fine, but still zero network activity. Clearly this is an issue of the printer drivers interfering with the network. After several weeks I gave up and bought a refurb MSI 845e board from Newegg for $45 shipped. I'm sure that further diligence probably could have come up with an eventual solution. I did try contacting HP's email tech support, what a joke. They suggested I uninstall the previous drivers. I had stated that this was a fresh install using the current drivers offered on their website. Useless. Perhaps there is a software fix out there somewhere, or I could have bought a print server and used it as a workaround. Bottom line was that it was easier to replace the ECS board. Besides, the red MSI PCB matches my Sapphire 9500Pro perfectly. Sorry about the long rant, but this may help someone else. Probably wouldn't effect anyone that doesn't have the same printer, but who knows? I did try running it for several days without hooking up the printer and it worked flawlessly. YMMV.