[steveie85ca]

All the ram you have, and asked about is compatible with the second mobo. I would really suggest the thermal paste. You should use Artic Silver as it is the best. Also you don't need a lot. Only a thin layer as if you have to much it will prevent proper heat transfer from the processor to the heatsink/fan. The sluggishness in the BIOS is more then likely caused by there being no thremal paste, thus improper heat transfer.

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If you are picking up thermal compound, I suggest you purchase MX-2. It can be found here
The reason why I suggest this thermal compound over the Artic Silver 5 compound is because the MX-2 from Arctic cooling outperforms the Arctic Silver 5 compound and it's ceramic based, therefore it does not conduct electricity, unlike the Arctic Silver 5 compound that does conduct electricity. OCZ Freeze is another good compound to consider, I'd pick up whichever is available and the cheapest option of the two as they perform nearly the same. Note: Be sure that you do not purchase thermal adhesive.

The sluggishness in the BIOS is more then likely caused by there being no thremal paste, thus improper heat transfer.

I'm going to have to agree, sounds like your CPU may be throttling, as it's over heating.
James

[james_8970]

If you are picking up thermal compound, I suggest you purchase MX-2. It can be found here
The reason why I suggest this thermal compound over the Artic Silver 5 compound is because the MX-2 from Arctic cooling outperforms the Arctic Silver 5 compound and it's ceramic based, therefore it does not conduct electricity, unlike the Arctic Silver 5 compound that does conduct electricity. OCZ Freeze is another good compound to consider, I'd pick up whichever is available and the cheapest option of the two as they perform nearly the same. Note: Be sure that you do not purchase thermal adhesive.

The sluggishness in the BIOS is more then likely caused by there being no thremal paste, thus improper heat transfer.

I'm going to have to agree, sounds like your CPU may be throttling, as it's over heating.
James

[stettybet0]

Intel's stock heatsink comes with thermal paste pre-applied... If you are using that (I see nothing that suggests otherwise), everyone is barking up the wrong tree here.

Back to your RAM. Both the Mushkin and OCZ sets you tried are rated to run at 1.8V, which is the default for DDR2. So, this eliminates undervolting the RAM as a problem, but not faulty RAM. You can test for faulty RAM by running Memtest.

Click this for a guide to using Memtest

Click this to download Memtest

Run it overnight if possible.

[james_8970]

I'm getting threads mixed up
That being said, the fact that two sets of RAM have been used would essentially rule out the possibility of faulty RAM. Plus faulty RAM wouldn't cause a laggyness in the BIOS.
What BIOS version is being used? This is a relatively new board.....
James