Just because I'm new here, doesn't mean I'm new everywhere, my friend. I use Tuniq-X2 as well as AS5 among others (depends on the build), and I have yet to have a problem for any of them, sans the weird factory paste that most gpus and aftermarket coolers come with. I've built quite a few myself and from my experience, so long as proper ethics are enforced in application, it's really down to semantics. Both of my heavily OC'd 9800GTs(soon to be 2x GTX260s sli and 1 9800gt physx) with aftermarket coolers never run above 36c under load, and 24c idle. As for my cpu, it's an i7 860 at 4.15 ghz (1.45v) (all cores/no speedstep) and idles at 34c-36c, 42c full load. However I realize that everyone has an established method, and I respect that, to each their own. I understand the reasoning behind coming here and having to make 40 posts before you even get sig privileges, but I'm not new to this rodeo by any means. I have mostly been in the performance laptop sector(but build rigs too) where cooling methods really really count and every little bit that you do right, gives you that much more headroom in such a confined space that architecturally resembles a hamburger with an LCD mounted.