Some tips on assembling the Allen Stein machine.
 

i've just gone through the process and have some tips to share with y'all.

- make sure you get the retail version (not the OEM version) of the AMD chip -- it ships with a heatsink fan that's easy to install. The OEM ships with no fan, and most of the recommended fans are a pain to install.

- make sure you add a floppy drive to the list of gear you get, 'cause you're going to need it to install the drivers to set the hard drives up on the promise controller.

- if you get the OEM version of Windows Home, be aware it sometimes doesn't ship with the Product Key, so you'll have to call Microsoft (a long distance call) and get them to give you one.

- the LAN connection on the motherboard doesn't work out of the box. you have to install the driver for it off of the ASUS disk. (not a big deal, but as a newbie it took me a quick minute to figure out.)

so my tips: get a floppy, too; get the retail AMD chip.

cheers,
tom.

Re: Some tips on assembling the Allen Stein machine.
 

Good advice, except I'd recommend the Zalman 7000 series fans instead of the stock AMD fan - they're very easy to install and significantly quieter - not to mention far more efficient at cooling than the stock fans.

Re: Some tips on assembling the Allen Stein machine.
 

Don't know where you got yours, but my Win XP OEM version shipped with product code stuck to the inside of the plastic shrink wrap. Zalman is significant upgrade over the retail CPU fan assembly.