BadAXe2 Newbie

[tootall]

I'm excited, I just ordered my stuff from NewEgg and while waiting for it to arrive I found this forum. Seems by far the best site related to the badaxe2 board. I agonized for days over which motherboard to get. Picked this one for several reasons. Mostly because of the 975x chipset. I like that it still has native pata and yet 3 pcix16 slots. The clincher was really the layout and look of the board and then that Intel will finally allow us play with overclocking. What I ordered:
1) D975XBX2 motherboard
2) E6320 Conroe processor
3) Kingston HyperX 800MHz memory (2x1GB)
4) XFX GeForce 7600GT pci e x16 video
5) Antec NeoPower 650 power supply
This enough to get the board rocking before I finish off the build. Splurged a little on the memory mostly because of 4-4-4-12 and the lower voltage of 2.0. Power supply is probably a little over kill but I saw that 100% load on board can approach 750 watts and I hate to tax power supplies because of heat. Comments on hardware choices are always appreciated. I have some general questions from reading documentation.
1) I read that some builds do not give you the performance menu, has anybody received a board like that?
2) I read that the E6320 must have a particular sSpec number for compatibility, has anybody received one that didn't match?
3) Should I just go ahead and up the memory voltage to match the 2.0 voltage specification?
4) What now seems to be the most stable, least buggy BIOS that has been released?
5) A note said that ATAPI optical master and ATA hard drive slave will not work. Does the reverse, typical, configuration work?
6) I read that the MOSFET heatsinks can make it tight for coolers, what nonliquid coolers have you fit on this board nicely?
7) Can you test minimal overclocking with the board just sitting out on a desk without a cooler?
For you overclockers, what speeds should I try to obtain for say a stable 2/3 overclock scenario?
9) What linux distros have been run that show good performance?
Sorry this was long, believe me I would much rather be playing with the hardware. Any and all information is appreciated.

[IRQ Conflict]

6) I read that the MOSFET heatsinks can make it tight for coolers, what nonliquid coolers have you fit on this board nicely?

My setup with a Scythe Ninja Rev.B.

650W PSU will be sufficient with only one GPU. I have a 500W and it will run two X1950Pro's in Crossfire. FYI this board does not support SLI. Crossfire only.

[Sparky]

I have a Zalman 9500 on mine with no clearance problems.
As far as BIOS either 2747 or 2770 have not caused me any problems. I haven’t tried 2777 yet.
As far as OCing, be sure to disable watchdog in BIOS or you may have problems with it booting.
Good luck!

[CMcguire]

6) I read that the MOSFET heatsinks can make it tight for coolers, what nonliquid coolers have you fit on this board nicely?

My setup with a Scythe Ninja Rev.B.

personally I'd recommend you dont go ith the Scythe Ninja.. i found the pins on mine were loose and basically nothing could be done bar buying other part to securely attach it. Better to go with a screw in heatsink that uses a back plate.

[IRQ Conflict]

Hmm, should of RMA'd the ninja. Mine fits nice and snug. Although I agree a backplate on a monster cooler like this should be mandatory. I plan to upgrade to water in a while anyway.

[tootall]

Thanks for the replies. I went with the Zalman 9500 because of the backplate. I will start off with the 2770 bios.

[ACL]

5) A note said that ATAPI optical master and ATA hard drive slave will not work. Does the reverse, typical, configuration work?

I have an ATAPI DVDRW and IDE HDD. I jumpered them Cable Select, put the optical at the end and the HDD in the middle.

Works fine.