i run 4-4-3-4-12-16-28-3-4-3-3-2-2-5, 401mhz, sync, for 3356mb via memtest.

Don't get me wrong, not blaming the issue on you, but like you say, it doesn't sound right. Could be the board...very possible...however if something corrupted BIOS as to make it not bootable, and it was before, only user error is the cause. I'm not saying you were stupid in your settings or anything, but that it was your actions that killed the board. All settings you may have changed may have been valid...but your fingers still pushed the buttons that made it die. Had everything stayed at stock ,I bet the board would still be alive.

And yes, i know this board is meant to be overclocked. But it's the overclocking that killed it. Bad chipset, bad B.O.M., bad luck, doesn't matter.

I mean, if i take your approach, then it MUST be YOUR fault, as my board works fine. Without both boards in my hands, there's really no comparison to be made. Now, if i got 4 brand new boards(not boards given as RMA, they are never new, merely returns, 99% of the time), and all of them died, 3 of them died, heck even if one of them died, I'd be a bit upset, but that's not the case here. We've got one guy returned his board and got back two duff boards. To me, this is no surprise. They didn't pull new boards off of the shelf...DFI doesn't even do that. I sent in RMA board direct to DFI, marked with invisible ink, got the same back. Didn't overclock worth a damn for me when i got it back, but whatever. Couldn't get 300FSB out of it(NF4). Dude who bought the board got 300mhz easy as pie. My fault? Did he know some trick i didn't? Nope. Just used different parts.

So, we got different parts, my board works, your doesn't. I say it's your other parts. Based on the C1 error on diagnostic LED, I'd blame your ram. Do i know this is the cause 100% for sure? Nope. 10%? Nope. But it was something that made it die...