GA-K8NXP-9 Motherboard - CPU backplate

I was initially looking at a Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-9 motherboard for my new PC but was put off by some statements concerning the CPU socket backplate not conforming to AMD specifications and being made of plastic. This made high-end heatsinks like those from Thermaltake and Zalman incompatible unless you sourced a separate AMD-specification backplate separately (which is dofficult to get in the UK). I posted the following message on Gigabyte's Web site:

Does the GA-K8NXP-9 motherboard come with a metal CPU-socket backing plate that conforms to AMD's specification? I want to attach a Thermaltake XP-90 heatsink and this requires a metal AMD-specification CPU socket back plate (see this link for heatsink http://www.thermalright.com/a_page/m...oduct_xp90.htm). This page, http://www.thermalright.com/a_page/m...board_xp90.htm, says:

"* Unlike other motherboard makers, Gigabyte uses a customized plastic motherboard backplate for its K8 motherboards, which is not compatible with XP-90 K8 retention bracket. Users need to remove it and replace it with a standard metal backplate before installation of Thermalright XP series heatsink. For more information regarding AMD K8 backplate please see Athlon64 processor thermal design guide (Fig. 5 & 6). And the metal backplate is also available from Thermalright here."

I got the following reply from Gigabyte:

Dear Customer

The back plate is metal so there should be no problems.

Kind Regards

Gigabyte

Hope that helps someone!

Taz

Gigabyte lied unless they are changing over on the production NF4 boards. They have been using the custom plastic backplates.