I was able to resolve my issue. It had nothing to do with the seating of the card. I went into BIOS and DISABLED TURBO SATA3 and USB 3.0 (I forgot the category it's under). If AUTO or ENABLED are selected then it will take speed from the PCI-E BUS Interface. I also installed the new F14 BIOS through the install-disk utility, "@BIOS", for better overall hardware compatibility and to enable dual channel mode for 16gb of RAM, so I could upgrade.
I appreciate the support, and let it be known that this issue is mobo configuration related.
Also, remember to LOAD OPTIMIZED DEFAULTS in BIOS when switching out hardware with these mobo's.
I also upgraded to the new 6970 card! hahaha!
Win 7 PRO 64
Intel i-7 860
G. Skill Sniper @ 1600mhz, 4x4gb
XFX ATI Radeon HD 6970 2gb, 880 core, 1375 memory
WD Black 1tb, 7200rpm, 64mb cache, 6gbps
GIGABYTE P55A-UD4P
AZZA Helios 910 (side fan as exhaust)