yea i have heard about all the mobo's and ram, they dont read the correct timings and you have to manually set them yourself which i dont mind doing it the only reason i didnt get the e6300 is because the e6400 can use the 6-8 multiplier and the e6300 only has 6 and 7. the 6300 turned out to be only $40 cheaper when i looked at newegg which is where i got all my parts.

Nice post your pics in the PC Build Gallery though.

ok i just finished my build and now i have problems.
1. copy of windows says activated too many times and wont activate.
2. Hard Drives attatched to jmicron controller dont show up in bios as devices but windows sees them as SCSI devices not pata IDE.

Well... for question 1... it requires a phone call to Microsoft.
It happens when you upgrade a few times, or change major components ...Mobo,etc. They will ask why you are reinstalling...blah,blah.
It's not a big deal, usually.
You will need your keycode when you call. They will issue you a new code to enter at install.

2nd question will need some research.

thanks for the reply if figured i would have to call them it doesnt matter that i bought a oem copy does it. i bought it last year with my last build for a computer. yea the second question is stumping me because i have looked all over and it seems to be a common problem and nobody seems to have an answer.

Mobo is quite new... released this summer. Sometimes conflicts/issues don't crop up until it's in wide use...they cannot test every possible combination of parts. Since it's brand-new... contact Asus support with the problem.

Re: the OEM copy... just don't "volunteer anything" when you call-- I can't see that it's an issue, and the operator you speak to will probably not be able to tell. Just tell them you've upgraded your hardware... they may ask what you upgraded. Tell them it was a custom-build (the truth, after all) and you need to reactivate.
What CD do you own? is it SP1 or SP2 ? while you should still be able to download the service-packs from the Knowledge-base... I don't know if reactivation would become an issue with an older CD...that would not be fun.
Maybe someone you know has SP2 on CD-- it is not licensed --by itself so it is legal to use any copy. Says so right on my CD copy.

All you can do is give it a shot.