sitting duck, could you have been looking at the enormously over-priced "Extreme i7 965" cpu that comes in a nice black box? Sure, it's faster than my lowly "stock" i7 920, but it wasn't worth almost $800 more. I got the i7 for $229 American, and the 965 sitting right next to it was priced at $989!  
  
I realize that if I install WinXP Pro 32-bit on it, it won't be able to use the other 2 gigs of RAM...but really, if this is a gaming rig, so what? 4 gigs of RAM on XP should be smokin'. Also, it was a paltry $20 difference between the 3 gig set and the 6 gig set. Not to mention I'm already set if I decide to upgrade to Windows 7 whenever that shows up.  
  
I guess what I'm really interested in is if maklroy or anyone else knows of any real benefit in GAMING if I pony up for the 64-bit OS. In other words, this is strictly a gaming rig, and if the games(namely BHaH)can't use the 64-bit architexture of the i7...why bother?  
  
Fortiesboy, thanks for the heads up on the mic, but since I plan on using the onboard audio, I don't anticipate any issues. I'm actually excited about dusting off the CH Pro HOTAS that's been wimpering in the corner of the room. I sure hope BHaH is the second coming of the Red Baron superpatch, or even the original Red Baron from Dynamix in 1990 that I loved to death on my 386SX-16 with 2 MB of RAM. Yes, I said MB, not GB. Man, am I getting old or what!