Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.
Sometimes it makes big diference which USB ports are being used. Some of the USB devices may have too much power draw for USB ports located at the front of the case. I find ports at the motherboard IO panel best to use with external hard drives.
Going with drivers provided by motherboard manufacturer saves some time initially as we do not have to hunt down proper drivers from component manufacturers. Updating all the drivers later on is always a good practice tough.
Due to some issues with Patriot sticks I've seen lately, I would definitely run MemTest to make sure RAM is OK. Easy to do and it doesn't cost anything.
After lot of research and comparison when P67 boards came out, I've bought Asrock P67 Extreme6. Very glad I did and will definitely consider another Asrock product in the future.
Bigger than rest of the mini-itx cases you'll find on the market today but I think it is by far the best one out there:
http://www.cubitek.com/products/chassis/mini-tank/features.html
I had to call them once over last 15 years and was not too impressed with assistance I've received. They messed up product description and I did not receive what was idvertised. When I asked to return product, they refused to take it back.
I am still very happy with their selection, shipping...
Before you spend money on new cooler, you may want to try and remove/clean/apply better TIM/re-seat your heatsink. I've done the same for friend of mine and added couple of 40mm fans on top.
Zip ties can be set-up very neatly. I've had couple of 80mm fans zip tied to HR-03 R600. Looked very good and worked even better. If you do not like zip ties, ZALMAN VF700-ALCU or ZALMAN VF700-CU should get the job done just fine.