Hmh, I could be misinformed, but from what I remember is that they say that one shouldn't mess with the stock heatsink assembly around the PWM. The area around the PWMs seems to be very fragile and needs a certain and even pressure, otherwise you might smoke them. So you could be lucky with your RMA but I wouldn't get my hopes up, I think you voided your warranty.

Maybe they'll give a discount on a new board, but when you need one anyway I'd just go with the R3E. Newer, more options, moar power and waaaaaay cooler PWM area. I run my T3eH8 with an watercooled i7@200*21, 1.39vc and 1.41v vtt and you feel the heat toasting your face when you come close to it's PWM area. R3E uses DirectFETs (example: the small one to the right) which are way smaller than comparable standard FETs while delivering the same ooomph and staying cooler. So I guess before the 8-phase design of the R3Eget's into problems your chip is already in flames...