Problems with SiS 745 Ultra with 2600+

Question

Hey all,
I recently had my old system (1700+) die on me when the PSU fried.  The mobo also fried (surprisingly, my hard drives, CD-ROMs and RAM was fine--one stick was partially melted, but it works perfectly) and my dad ordered me a new system.  
It's the SiS 745 Ultra mobo with a 2600+ (not Barton).  The site we ordered from, http://www.pcsourceonline.com had it in a barebones kit.  We got the proc, mobo and case and I was under the impression that the proc would work at 2600+ out of the box.
It didn't.  We couldn't get it any higher than 2000+.  I then checked online and saw that out of the box the 745 only supported up to 2000+, but with a new BIOS it supported 2600+.  So I had to find a floppy drive and disk (seriously, who uses these?) and then flash.  The flash apparently worked fine, but I was only able to get my CPU to 2400+ at the max.
I changed the FSB to 133MHz, the multiplier to 12.5/13x (14x was down to 667MHz for some reason and 15x was 750MHz), and put the CPU:DRAM ratio to 4:5 and was able to max out at 2400+.
I went to Madison for the weekend and left my computer on because I was downloading some stuff that was going to take all weekend.  When I came back, the computer seemed to be fine, until I played Unreal Tournament 2k3 and it told me my proc. speed was only 1150MHz.  I rebooted, saw that on the boot screen it was indeed registering as 1150MHz.  I went into the BIOS and saw that all the settings were the same.  So I don't know what happened.  I putzed around a little and was able to get it back to 2000+.
I looked in the manual and saw that the CPU:DRAM ratios were the same for 133-165MHz FSB, so I bumped it up to 165 and restarted.  It was at 2400+!  But then when i got to the log on screen for windows, the screen was FUBAR and I could get  nowhere.  I had to put the FSB back to 133, and that's where am I now, stuck at 2000+.
I don't mean to go on a rant or anything, but I'm pretty pissed at how difficult this whole process has been.  When you order a computer and the site is set up with drop down menus allowing you to choose from 1800+ - 2600+ CPUs, you would think that the mobo's to choose from would be compatible out of the box.  They're not, and only through potentially destroying my motherboard was I able to...get my computer to ALMOST be where it's supposed to be.
I can find nothing online that tells me anywhere how to properly set up the BIOS so that I can use the CPU to it's fullest.
I'm dual booting Windows XP Pro and Windows Server 2003 Enterprise, I have 512 (2x256)MB PC2100 DDR RAM, a 60GB ATA133 7200 RPM Maxtor hard drive, a GeForce4 Ti4400 128MB DDR video card, LiteOn 32x12x48 CD-R and a generic 48x CD-ROM
Any help would be VERY appreciated!  Thank you!

Answer 1

Thank you, yet again!  
I did a little research on MSI Mobos and found the K7N2 Delta-L and K7N2 Delta-ILSR--both of which seem comparable to the Biostar one, if not a little more expensive.
The Delta-L is a mobo choice on the site that I ordered the computer from, its an additional $46 from the base price (the base price that has the MSI SiS 745 Ultra as the standard mobo for all the CPUs you're able to choose from)...so I think I'm going to try and get them to send me that one.
Any objections to the Delta-L board?