ASUS Maximus II Formula - new P45 king?

[elsupremo]

Here is an update on my battle to get a 4870 X2 into my system.
- I did flash my Diamond 4870 X2 to a Powercolor - it did not change anything.
- I actually returned my Diamond and purchased a Visiontek 4870 X2. I have the SAME problems exactly. The motherboard is NOT stable at stock settings with the 4870 X2. Aside from any stress tests, the USB's are connecting and disconnecting and acting improper, as a sign of my motherboard suffering.
- When I tried IntelBurnTest at stock settings, it would reboot my system almost immediately. After trying different things, I finally was able to pass IntelBurnTest successfully at stock settings with the exception of one: CPU volts. I had to overvolt my CPU at stock to get it to pass. However, USB is still messed up and acting funny.
- I've tried 2 different models of Gskill DDR2, I'm about to try another brand of DDR2 in a moment to see if that changes anything. Not that it makes any sense.
- While playing some games with the GTX 280 in there, I saw a couple glitches and suspicious behaviors that led me to suspect the system is not totally stable even with the GTX280 in there, even though it is at 4 ghz, passes all stress tests, and has no other obvious ailments. It could be my imagination and could be due to some other variables. The glitches were small; but at this point, I'm suspicious of the motherboard.
- I'm going to take anything extra out of the system right now, change the memory, and see if it fixes it. If not, unless someone else has another BIOS setting to try, I'm going to RMA this board. It simply must have a physical problem that is causing it to "die" when the 4870 X2 is put in, even at stock settings.