I'm going to try one quick install before work with just 1x stick of RAM in the 4th slot. Somebody else in another forum had an issue where that board only had one working slot in pos. 4. All connections are definitely solid. I was extremely anal when putting the AS5 paste on. I use a razor blade to spread a very thin/even layer on top of the processor and that's it. So I know I didn't get any on the pins by mistake although this weekend if this continues I'll probably pull it apart and try again. As far as I could tell the processor was seated properly since I could only go in one way.
I could always try to install XP to see what happens there. It's just weird that Win 7 installed once then on a reboot decided to start freezing and was hosed from that point forward. I'm starting to think my initial install was just plain "luck" and there was still an underlying problem somewhere.
I have a feeling a couple trips to Fry's might be in order this weekend....
*EDIT* Another install failed and frozen at the "Starting Windows" screen after first reboot during install procedure. Didn't even get to updating services. CPU fan once again goes from normal to full blast upon hard freeze. Attempted install with 1x stick RAM in slot 4 and bios at failsafe defaults with ACHI on, LAN controller off, floppy off, and only had a USB keyboard plugged in (which was unplugged during the initial Windows install and left unplugged for reboot).
*EDIT 2* I ordered a 300gb WD Velociraptor drive, which should show up tomorrow. I'd read some reports of people having issues with W7 installing on a 1TB drive. Even if that's not the issue I could use that 10k RPM drive anyway for W7, apps, games, etc and I'll just use my 1TB drive for movie storage, etc.
I'm going to stop by Fry's on the way home to snag another PSU and Asus P7P55D mobo to try for kicks.