that is what i did, add two fans to the PWM and NB..so far, effective if you believe the "system" temp!

Yes this is the only motherboard I've had where I couldn't improve the heat conduction by reapplying thermal paste etc., The fans help of course , but on air the heatpipes are pretty efficient, again a somewhat unusual event. Dammit i'm getting cynical

luck

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i might pull the heatpipe to apply paste and then add some bolts for the PWM heatsink part....i am surprised that gigabyte did not do that since they used bolts for the NB and SB...scratching head!

I'm not sure that repasting would add anything to be honest, the quality of the thermal sheet looks pretty good, see what you think ?. Maybe tightening up a bit & certainly replacing the pushpins with bolts will help. Your an expert at that from your Abit P35 days remember seeing your fix there

That new bios did nothing for me. I'm on 8x520@3.33D 7,7,7,12 atm trying to work up the multis. flashed to new bios & it wouldn't post with same settings. Might mean thta it's just a bit tighter timings, but i'll leave it for now.

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when, and if, i get an E8400 to try out, i will yank the heatpipe to see how good of contact the PWM is making...that is my main concern since i did tightened the NB & SB bolts.

the F5C will get a go this evening for me...let you know how that works out.

it's probably best to try it with the same CPU , to minimise the number of impacting variables ??

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F5C sucks big time for a bios!

it would not allow me to adjust FSB using the 9X default multi...everytime i set the window for enabling, it bounce back to disable.

BUT...the biggest problem, Vcore was stuck on 1.20 regardless if i set 1.50v...went back to F5A...all is well now!

well...if i am going to yank the heatpipe, i need the TRUE heatsink out of the way...AND...if i do that, i might as well change CPU's if i buy the E8400.

Yep did the same with me , didn't get that far with the vcore

Yep I see what you mean. That's a benefit of watercooling 2minute job to switch.

So you going to get a 8400

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i was kind of hoping to get an E8500...they are suppose to be out by now.

i will be out of town visiting our son and his family...my birthday is upcoming so a big weekend is planned.