I seem to have finally solved the overheating issue, though I now believe the problem was also related to the MB.
First of all, the new cooler is stellar. I bought the Corsair H100i V2. Not cheap, but really keeps things cool. Not sure which readings to believe (the Corsair app shows under pressure 48C, while the Asus app shows 54C. Either way, a far cry from 70+C! According to the Corsair app, at idle/minimal work, the CPU almost frigid at 19-24C.
When I came back from my recent shoot, I went to boot up my computer. Dead. It would start and then die within 10 seconds. The particular motherboard I have has LED readouts that flash code as it boots. (Nice feature for troubleshooting.) The last readout was always "FF". I called Asus and after much discussion, the guy finally told me the motherboard was basically dead and would have to be shipped to them for repair. Screw that. I bought a new one (exact same so I wouldn't have to worry about drivers, et al). Took me a few hours to install, but everything seems fine. I now wonder if the periodic issues I had with the computer freezing while in Lightroom, may be attributed to MB issues as well. I do know that in stressing the GPU/CPU with first ripping a movie I own, then doing a 300% enlargement in Photoshop of a 5Ds file, the computer has had no issues -- knock on wood. This week, I have a lot of digital work between imaging from the job I just shot and printing an imaging for a couple of upcoming art shows.
