Rule #1 - Be Patient - Rule #2 - Don't ask when, if you don't contribute - Rule #3 - You have coding skills - LinuxMCE's small brother is available: http://www.agocontrol.com
I also have alpha with no tearing on the same abit board. Did you try tweaking your graphics memory in the bios? I've set mine to 256mb for graphics, maybe that will help ...