OK, I'm confuzzled....

[clocker]

Just FYI...it was the motherboard.
Installed MSI(ugh!) Neo Platinum and all is well.
Fun, fun, fun...RMA, here we come!

[Virtualbody1234]

Yay! MSI.

The K8N Neo Platinum? How do you like it?

I'm looking to get the K8N Neo2 Platinum but haven't found it in stock at a decent price yet. Still looking.

[clocker]

Yay! MSI.

The K8N Neo Platinum? How do you like it?

Hard to tell...most difficult setup I've ever experienced.
Would/will not run with more than two DIMM slots occupied (each module is Mushkin ddr PC3200 512MB).
Windows install kept erroring out until I pulled one stick... now running 2 sticks, 1 gig. This may be a factor of the nForce3 chipset or the CPU itself, I'm not sure.

Did not have to load any SATA drivers...in fact, installing the MSI supplied nVidia mass storage controller or the nVidia RAID drivers crashed out the system.

After successfully installing Windows (finally!) I am only now beginning to run the system, so I have no real experience as yet.

Not crazy about the odd RAM and socket location - it precludes the use of some HSFs (Zalman 7700, for instance), but it won't affect my H2O install so I can't complain too much.

All in all VB....it's hard to say.
My whole rig is completely new to me now- new case, new board...nothing feels comfy yet.
I'm sure I'll get used to it, but since I plan on changing the CPU and board to s939 sometime this spring, I can put up with any weirdness till then.