I have a couple of builds with this board, both are using 1008. That is the latest release BIOS. Neither person is having an issue. You must use nVidia nForce 6.66 or higher with that BIOS.
The ALT-F2 method is best for flashing. Once you flash and it reboots, go into the BIOS and load Setup or Optimized Defaults and then SAVE and EXIT. Reboot. Go back into BIOS again and configure as you desire.
Edited to say: on second thought--you might want to go the 1010.003 route (BETA) as ASUS may have incorporated the workaround for the Creative X-Fi issue into that release. No way of telling at this point until they release it. If you have no intention of using the X-Fi, then 1008 should be fine.