Thanks for the response already.
Yeah, I didn't uninstall then install. But I'm pretty sure I had the latest chipset drivers anyway (after the wipe I did months ago), I just re-installed them to be sure and to avoid the new BIOS destroying my system. (since the asus site said I had to have the drivers installed before updating BIOS to a later version)
I might give it a go with the graphics drivers though, if it messed up yours then there's a good chance it fooked mine too. I guess.
I don't think I can monitor the gfx card temperature but I'll look around for a tool...might be one that comes with the software.
@ USB and boot: yup, if I wait for say, 7-8 minutes the pc does boot past the splash screen and everything is just fine. So I'll definitely give Bootvis a try. Still, this is a pretty major fuckup by Asus...I mean, way to make my lousy basic USB setup virtually make my pc fail after updating to a BIOS 4 times as recent.
Would you advise running memtest? Though I suppose zero crashes apart from games doesn't really indicate a ram issue.
They do offer internet/games for a mere 0.5€ per hour, so I know where I'm going when my pc is fooked. 