"Why do people think it's the video card and CPU that are the important details for an OS to boot?"
Well, mainly cause the other dude said this OS supports more hardware than Windows 8, perhaps? When I can't even get a display, I do think it's worth noting the make and model of the graphics card (s), lol.
Not getting even VESA mode on this machine. Display blips then goes black. Skulltrail mobo, dual 9975's, Dual Titan's, etc.
My i7 machine has an Asus P6T mobo and I did manage to get it working in VESA mode, but I can't see the NIC at all on it. Installed a spare Bigfoot PCIe NIC (Killer 2100) in the machine and no dice there either.
Oh well, I tried.