Old Toledo's aren't soldered, but who knows what AMD is doing these days.
But the IHS soldering might be a GOOD thing, it means a much better job of heat transfer to the IHS.
Good recommendation on the sink, that is a monster, Ill have to consider it. I need better air cooling, the stock heatpipe Opteron Im using is good but keeps me from being 100% stable at 3.5Ghz. Get me a 10C temp drop from where I am and Im sure Ill be stable.
Im still debating dropping the Foxconn 590SLI board and getting a Crosshair. One thing I did do is replace the push-tabs on the SB/NB heatsinks with screws/nuts to make damn sure the clamping force was there. The pushpins are too loose and let the sinks wobble. Makes for a lousy heat interface. Also used AS5, but AS5 needs mechanical stability increasing the need for solid mounting. I think my PWM is getting too hot, will try improved cooling/sinks on other elements of the board first, before switching. One mice thing is the Foxconn does have a 4stage CPU mosfet supply. But I worry about the vdimm voltage regulator, it was a weak spot in the DFI NF4 boards.
Not sure if my OCZ Powerstream 520adj is good enough to be pushing these limits. I might bite on the sale at NewEgg on the 700 GameXtreme. Kinda wanted to wait till they implemented dual 2900XT/8800GTX power connections.
