[Timo]

Ideally I would have liked to have heard what Gigabyte say about the problem, as it appears to be a common problem affecting many users after reading the aforementioned other internet sources, but as the DSR regulations end tomorrow (Friday 18th) and I haven't heard from Gigabyte regards the problem I can't wait any longer to find out, so I've had request the RMA under the DSR regulations.

As mentioned, I contacted Scan Technical Support on Tuesday and Scan's RMA department yesterday via online forms on Scan's site, but haven't heard back from either.

Given that I've had no technical support from Gigabyte or Scan, and that I don't have time to wait under the DSR regulations, I've filed for an RMA just a few minutes ago. I just wish there was some automatic acknowledgment that they've received it.

PS > Yes, as mentioned, the motherboard works fine for BIOS versions F5 or lower.
BIOS versions F6 and above causes the spikes. And, because I have one of the new Intel 1333MHz Yorkfield CPUs, the earliest BIOS version that supports this chip is F9, so reverting back to F5 is not an option for me.

PSS > The spiking occurs at idle. You don't even need to provoke the system to get the spikes. They are there right after a completely clean Windows install.