https://forums.evga.com/FindPost/2367243

comeNtakeit
Thanks for the reply. I did see the thread
X58 SLI MB and Xeon W3690

and am aware of the mod it speaks of.
Important to note though the board revisions (rev1.0 & rev1.1)being discussed there.

132-bl-e758 rev1.2

Revision 1.2 is wat I am trying to understand better.
Does the 83 bios give revision 1.2 boards Xeon compatibility without any need for the 538 & 539 resistor swap?

For a definitive answer query EVGA technical support

Thank you for the replies. Got a Xeon w3690 coming in the mail.

When I do thIs swap I want to go ahead and replace the strip of thermal pad on wat I believe is the vreg heatsink.

See attached Image

The thin tall air cooled heat sink that is positioned to the left of the processor. Directly next to the 8pin ATX 12v Connector.

Does anyone know the thickness of this thermal pad?

Seems I will need one of the same thinkness or thicker. The use of thermal paste would require modification to how this heatsink fastens to the board.

Although shorter bolts would allow a tighter fit.

Pads thickness is as follows
.5mm
1.0mm
1.5mm
2.00mm
2.5mm
3.00mm

I went with a 1.5mm thermal pad 15W/mk. These were a bit thicker than the original thermal pad it replaced.

Got the North Bridge pasted up with non electrical conductive paste. Tried expanding each of the six spring loaded screws hoping this would create an increase in down force on the plate

Received my W3690 and got it installed with a zalman 9900 air cooler.

Did a few case mods keeping in mind I most likely would need an increase in air flow later once the w3690 is overclocked.

First I would like to get feedback on current changes made before going to crazy with additional mods.

However after getting everything back in place and booted it would not post. Cleared CMOS and still nothing. Powers up everything spins but only a FF on the lcd post code screen on the bottom of the MB.

I was mistaken in believing my board was 1.2 not sure which software was erroneously reporting the ver 1.2 but I can only blame myself in not observing the board stamped 1.1 physically so now I have pulled everything back out and rereading wats out there in an attempt to measure twice before cutting once.

I will be performing the westmere 538 to 539 mod.

Went ahead and grabbed some magnifying illuminated goggles($5 harbor freight)
Fresh tip on my iron with adjustable temp.
Will make use of a copper desoldering braid I have had laying around waiting to get used in some kind of faraday bag or box project I never got around to.

Will have my desoldering pump as backup but was hoping not to lose the 538 resistor hence the copper braid. Will post results once achieved.