Well, I'm back. As it turned out... I had to replace the motherboard too. Chances are it was the culprit all along. There were three bent pins on the socket, one of them very badly so. I got them straightened but PC didn't bootup (with memory in dual-channel config). Tried tinkering more and the badly bent pin broke off. Replaced with an ASRock Z97 Pro3 (it was the only Z87/97 mobo on shelf at the local shop). Hopefully will turn out to be a reliable mobo. Now, after reinstalling Windows 10 too, finally back in business. Or so I assume, haven't actually tested a single game/becnhmark yet. Though you'd think, having replaced half my PC, that things work now! Anyways, thanks for listening and kids, do NOT delid! Seriously, don't do it. Complete waste of time and money.
A complete waste of time and money....if you manage to break the pins on the motherboard? Right. De-lidding has worked for tons and tons of people. I'd say a drop in temps of 20C+ is quite worth it.
To each his own. Not worth it when something breaks I think. 20+ years building PCs and this was the first, and the last, time I'll attempt anything like this.
Once bitten, twice shy I used to happily flash GPU BIOS's, until I bricked one card, then I swore to never flash GPUs again, and haven't Although the 980 BIOS thread is catching my attention atm lol
It's pretty much impossible to brick with nvflash. Even if you manage to do it, nvflash can undo the damage. Just boot up with your integrated graphics, (or in your case, a card in the second slot since you're on AMD), and re flash. As for the delidding, you're only supposed to do it if you can afford to replace the chip. Pretty simple rule to follow. Anything can go wrong. It's normally pretty easy, but still.