Critique and advise please

Read the manual! Asus has a pretty detailed manual, and I highly suggest you read it first. For now, I'd leave the settings in BIOS where they are. Since you're not familar with them, you're better off not playing around there. This isn't to scare you, but you can adjust certain settings that can lead to instability. That's mainly why I'm advising you not change anything and that you should read the manual. That's the first thing I do when I get a new product.

Before you power on, check your connections and make sure everything is secure and that all power connectors to the motherboard are plugged in. You don't need your hard drives plugged in just yet. Just make sure the motherboard boots up. You can always plug in your drives a little later.