I would have taken the gamble. Won't boot once in a while, bad solder joints on the CPU socket. Video cards won't work? I'd bet it's something screwy with the Mediator, or even related to a screwy accelerator (test it out with a real daughter-board.) Even paying for repair, you're walking away with not a bad system.
I'm interested in knowing how it all turns out as well. I'm convinced this would make a great couple of weekend's worth of tinkering for a working PCI-based system.
So, maybe not a steal. :-)
