Mr. Baldegle 3.8

[Getback]

And running sweet. 4.0 here I come.

[BaldEagl]

LOL.  I had to clock mine back to stock today. 

I had it running at 60C steady in Prime95, about 55C in AH and idling at about 36C on stock air at 3.2 Ghz (ambient temp ~80F).  So today I updated video drivers (177.xx) flashed to the latest BIOS, then decided to try re-seating the fan/heatsink again to try to bring temps down.  They went up!  There was no way for me to get them back either.  I re-seated that fan/heatsink at least five times today.  Finally I got the temps back where they were but only by clocking back down.

I ordered an Arctic 7 Freezer, some more Arctic Silver and an 80mm Antec side intake fan just a few minutes ago.  Next weekend, back to 3.2.

I should have just left well enough alone.  Live and learn.

[Getback]

The directions for artic silver say it needs time to "burn in". So try again after you put some hours on it.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

The bios flash probably only changed the way your mobo handles the temperature sensors so your temps may have not changed at all.

Other option is that somehow the bios flash boosted your voltages. Lesson of the story is - if it ain't broke don't try to fix it. Bios flashes should be done only as a last resort if something is not working.

[Fulmar]

I have the Arctic Freezer 7, the only gripe I have about it is that the push pins are weaker plastic than the original Intel pins.  The heatsink on my Asus P5NE-SLI board is fairly large and the bottom two rows of fins on my Arctic Freezer touch (had to be bent slightly).  When I first installed the board, I didn't realize this and pushed a wee bit too hard trying to get one pin in, resulting in the plastic tip getting bent a bit.  I had to bend it back but I'm not 100% comfortable that it sits completely flush.  But my temps have been fine.  51-52C on 100% CPU load with a 25% overclock.  Which in my fairly hot ambient room temp, is 1-2C off my stock temp with the stock cooler.

Other than that, the Arctic Freezer is good stuff.  The detachable fan makes it super easy to clean dust off the fan/fins when need be.