There are two reasons I haven't chosen either the 8K5A2 nor the new 8K9A, those being that Via is rumored to be readying a VT400A, and also because of EPoX's decision to back off on reading the on-die thermosensor in the AthlonXPs and newer Durons due to confused users returning perfectly good boards because of the more accurate, and thus higher temps they were seeing. I strongly suggest everyone contact EPoX and tell them you want to see the actual temps, instead of totally inaccurate lower temps.
EPoX Tech Support reply concerning on-die temperature readings:
"We do not use the internal thermal diode of the CPU. Too many customers were confused by its higher temperature readings.
Thermal die readings if enabled in the board design would only be accessible to the BIOS (not seen by user) for safey features. I cannot
confirm at this time the thermal die reading ability of the 8K9A board."
Has anyone heard any differently?
Here is an excerpt of an interview done by Van's Hardware with the makers of Artic Silver:
VHJ: How do you explain the fact that many websites do not show nearly this much of a temperature drop when different types of thermal paste are tested? Oftentimes thermal paste roundups show differences of only 1-2 degrees between all the pastes themselves and this variation well within a margin of error.
Nevin: You raise an excellent, excellent point and one I wanted to address. Let?s look at a bit of history:
When Arctic Silver first arrived, it was tested by a variety of websites and yielded results showing temperature drops of 2-7 degrees C -- exactly what we predict. The testbeds used by these websites, however, were primarily Pentium III?s with internal temperature monitoring thermal diodes.
Today, most websites have switched to Athlon-based systems which use a thermistor in the socket for temperature measurement. Unfortunately, this is inherently flawed.
ACCORDING TO BASIC LAWS OF PHYSICS, IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO OBTAIN AN ACCURATE TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENT DOWNSTREAM FROM THE HEAT SOURCE IN A SECONDARY HEAT PATH IN A NON-ISOTHERMAL ENVIRONMENT (caps added).
Allow me to illustrate further. Imagine a room with one outside window. It?s winter outside?so the temperature outside is 30 degrees, while the room?s temperature is a uniform 70 degrees. A thermistor placed inside the room will, of course, register a temperature of 70?.
Now, imagine what would happen if you took that same thermistor and taped it to the outside of the window. The thermistor will register a MUCH lower temperature than 70?. There is only one section of it even in contact to receive heat flowing from the room, and that heat must pass through the glass. Furthermore, the other 75% of the thermistor is in constant contact with the outside air?which, as we have noted is much colder than the air in the room.
IN SHORT, THE IN-SOCKET THERMISTOR CANNOT EFFECTIVELY MEASURE THE TEMPERATURE OF THE PROCESSOR, ALL IT TRULY DOES IS MEASURE THE TEMPERATURE OF ITSELF (caps added)
Check out the complete Van's Hardware interview with Artic Silver Corp at
http://www.vanshardware.com/articles/2001/december/011209_AS_Interview/011209_AS_Interview.htm