Originally Posted by
sin0822
dude don't worry about the temperature of the VRM, just place some airflow over it if you are going to OC over 4.2ghz that is what i am recommending now.
On a side note, I actually talked to GB about the issue and others pertaining to the X79 boards when i was at CES like a day or two ago, i voiced some suggestions and questions to their top management, they actually wanted to hear my suggestions. I sat down and talked to some of their VPs. They were eager to hear what i had to say and they really impressed me by listening and trying to understand what they can do better. What other company will have their top management sit down with a power user like me and hear what i have to say? F7 is a good and safe BIOS and yes they took the boards to flash them all with F7 to ensure nothing happens like it did on the UD3. I saw the UD7 is currently out of stock before i left, it is either in for BIOS flash or because they ran out, as the board wasn't made in large quantities. GB has some really good stuff planned for 2012, I am excited for some excellent overclocking products, and no i don't know when or what, I just know that there is a strong push internally.
When i saw their Z77 boards i couldn't help but think that they started to listen to overclockers, did anyone notice that all the ATX boards had Voltage read points, buttons for power,reset, and clear CMOS, and Port80H. Even the UD3 and G1 Sniper 3 and UD5 had these. IMO that is great! i looked over some of the chips (like on the G1 Sniper 3 they have 4 8x slots, and they have a PCI-E bridge chip, but it isn't NF200 and it isn't Lucid, but it is PCI-E 3.0 capable), the VRM on the Z77 boards is a bit different than on the X79, they use the same digital PWM, but they used different inductors (the ones used were made by the same manufacturer that made the OC board's inductors) but i was told that these are ES boards and that the final should be slightly different. I know they are trying their best to make sure Z77 tops Z68 by more than what we expect. They already have hicookie OCing, and IVY has some excellent OC potential as so i have heard.