Hey guys!  Been a few years since I have been active on here.  About to pull the trigger on a new rig, and needed a couple of questions answered:
 
1. Are the new out of the box 1070 ASX cards shipping with the BIOS update and VRAM Thermal pads?
 
2. Not interested in the Hybrid, would you recommend the reference cooler model over the ASX?
 
3. Is there a different vendor that you would recommend all together.  I have used EVGA products for years, but I do a concern over the longevity of these cards.  Thanks!

I have the 1070 FTW and put the pads on myself, according to evga after nov 1 all cards have the right pads.
I did not do the bios update which keeps fans on all the time I just did the one for micron memory.
<60c no fans, I would say it works flawlessly now after the driver miscues. 
 

I read that the new cards EVGA is shipping will have the fix in place but not sure what happened to all the stock the vendors had on the shelves.  Maybe they got sent back for repair or maybe they l sell that one to you.
 
I have used EVGA for years and loved them.  Then some 6 years ago I tried MSI as they there cheaper and had a free game.  Loved how quite their cards where and I never had a problem.  Came back to EVGA as I always missed them and got hit by the ASX 1070 issue. My RMA should arrive tomorrow so I will see how the new fixed card sounds.
 
I still like EVGA product support but since I also like MSI products my next card will be a tossup with weight on how the fixed card performs.

Just out of curiosity, why are you not interested in the Hybrid?

1) yes, all cards shipped after nov 1st
2) yes i would recommend the reference cooler over acx 3.0 at this point.
3) gigabyte g1 would be my choice.

Ordered the new setup yesterday evening.  I feel like I own it to EVGA to give them a chance, if the cards shipped after Nov 1, are indeed fixed.  Ive been away so long, I didn't even know EVGA made power supplies now!  Here is what I ordered.  Thoughts?
 
Intel Core i5 6600k
Corsair Hydro H100i v2 CPU Cooler
EVGA Z170 FTW Motherboard
EVGA GTX 1070 FTW ASX 3.0
16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4 @ 3000MHz
EVGA SuperNOVA 750W G1 PSU
Corsair Carbide 400C Mid Tower Case
250GB SSD for OS
2TB HDD for data