Update guys: I don't think it was the board. I put a coffee cup warmer under the HD, which keeps in up ~22C....thing ran great!!!....I was out there about an hour or so KILLING superpi(25.2sec), I can't wait to submit that score.
Then I went for max overclock again @ 1.63v and was astounded at the difference a nice cold NY day can make. I'm going to validate 3.6GHz before the day is done.