Check out the latest VHD release for ConfigMgr v.Next Beta 1, awesome that you don't have to deploy the infrastructure and layer eveything on to test drive the product, just fire this thing up as a VM or even boot off it:

Hello everyone, we wanted to get this information to you as soon as possible.  We now have released a fully configured virtual machine for ConfigMgr v.Next Beta 1.  Based on a Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 OS, this is a fully built virtual machine ready to import into your Hyper-V environments.

This is something the ConfigMgr team has done for a few major releases, starting back at the ConfigMgr 2007 RTM timeframes.  We are really excited to get you guys this type of access, to help you evaluate the latest and greatest ConfigMgr v.Next release.  We are also in the process of uploading the hands on labs for ConfigMgr v.Next as well, look for that announcement soon.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/systemcenter/archive/2010/08/18/configuration-manager-v-next-beta-1-now-on-vhd-test-drive-program.aspx

Read the complete post at http://wmug.co.uk/blogs/r0b/archive/2010/08/23/configmgr-v-next-beta-1-vhd-test-drive.aspx