A while ago. I dom't remember actually. I think it was like mabey a month or a month and a half ago. Mabey more. I reformatted my PC since I got it so I no longer have the email the has the date I placed the order.
I just ordered mine from monarch. Eventhough I ordered it once it was raised to $359, i got it for $339 because I put it in my cart before the price went up. Can you elaborate more on where you heard it had good steppings from monarch?
What do you mean outperform an $800-1000 video card? It would probably outperform an $800-1000 processor if that processor isnt overclocked while the 165 is overclocked.
If you mean would it outperform a $1000 CPU, then the answer is yes. And if you mean would it bottleneck a $1000 video card, then the answer is no (if you overclock it). Even if you OC the video card the answer is still no.
If you mean actually comparing a processor speed to that of a video card, the processor wouldn't come close. A GPU is much more complex and much more powerful than a CPU