Well thanks, always glad to turn tragedy into something positive lol.

Okay, smeared paste...fearful...things got sloppy.  Got a new case so I have more room to put everything.  Somehow in the process of moving everything over my Power Supply took a shit.  Fortunately, I actually was sitting on a better one.

Now here's the strangest thing of all:  I can't clamp down the cpu fan with the lever.  If I do, no boot.  If I just leave it hanging there, no problemo.  Unsure how this will affect the whole cooling process?  I mean, it's there, it's blowing, but it's not levered down.

I had 1/2 a mind to go new motherboard and cpu today, but it would have involved more subterfuge to the  Mrs. than I cared to risk, and the guy at the store talked me down from grabbing the latest six-core cpu since "no software exists that will use it right now."

(Is that even true?)

Hopefully I can get six more months out of this pile of crap, and hopefully my sloppy paste job and lack of clipped cpu fan won't start a fire.