My personal preference is to go with the 'Pro' version of anything, so far as the OS is concerned. It usually means that you have a the full toolset with regards to creating and managing a network, as well as a host of other things that can come in handy for maintenance and tweaking. You might want to check out the prices at newegg.com. The board you specify is $13 cheaper at NewEgg. In general it's a good board; the -only- caveats to be aware of is the NForce 4 chipset has =just= been released, so that technically makes the Nforce 3 chipset 'old' (that said, the Nforce 4 hasn't proven itself, so I'd avoid it for a few months at least). Another caveat is the strip plugs that Gigabyte uses (they'll have things like usb and firewire ports in an injection molded strip plug that goes in an unused backplane slot). If you build it yourself, and the system refuses to switch on, unplug those nifty strips. Whoever makes them seems to screw up fairly regularly and grounds out one of more of the data ports, preventing the motherboard from powering on. One thing about the SATA drive. Make =CERTAIN= you have enough cooling for that puppy. SATA drives are more vulnerable that PATA drives to heat death, and they generate considerably more heat, both mechanically and electronically. I lost the first SATA drive I used to heat within 60 days of getting it (I placed it in a bay at the bottom of my main tower. Thought the front case fans would be sufficient cooling. I was wrong); the next two drives I installed I placed in Antec HDD cooler bays. Basically, they fit in a full sized bay, are solid aluminum heat sinks with dual fans in the front plate to pull room air in and over the drive. The version I have also has an LED thermometer with two probes to monitor system temperature (The way I have it set up, one probe is taped right on the drive spindle, which is the hottest mechanical point, and the other hangs free in the case, giving me temperatures at certain places that might not have enough air flow). SATA and PATA drives can co-exist happily, so keep the idea of adding a Promise HDD controller card to your system, and just hanging a new drive onto it whenever you start feeling cramped for storage space in the back of your mind.