I just did the heatpipe mod this weekend, and I left the padding on that goes around the outside of the PWM. Seems like it was there the even out the base with the bottom of the chip. Not sure. My temps went down a bit with the mod - probably 7 degrees C? Didn't use nylon locking nutz - hope that won't be a problem. Boy, it was tough getting those northbridge bolts threaded!