zoson, judging from from the card I've gotten the TIM on the heat spreader is not too bad, but if you don't have good contact you should remount it anyway. Other than for example Gainward you won't void your warranty I think.

The card itself really is a solid piece of engineering but the HSF isn't that well built, it couldn't keep my card from overheating when running Furmark at it's stock setting of 1000MHz@.98v. I changed to a Thermalright Shaman with IC Diamond and now all is fine, folding now @ 1075,1.05v 2505 on the memory. Furmark still isn't stable above stock and voltage isn't helping that either. But that shouldn't matter right, we aren't buying card to play Furmark, right?

Concerning the OC tool from GB, well it's chunky and not really useable. Get the latest MSI Afterburner or NV inspector and you should be good, but you'll need the GB tool to change memory volts.

I didn't find any info yet on advisable memory voltage in the long run.