It would appear the new workstation is stable now, after flashing the BIOS and other tomfoolery. 

Despite being "overkill" in terms of hardware, it still takes for freaking ever to install things in Vista, Live Messenger being the worst offender by far.  Now I need to reorganize my office, set up the extra monitors and speakers, and go about intalling my various development tools.  I should have a very productive weekend.