Anybody out there done a clean install and still get the problem ?
Yes.
I don't have any sound card, and haven't used Firewire HD. Just vanilla 2.66x2x4 as it comes from Apple (same with extra internal HDs and GTX 285). Same symptoms under 10.5.8 through 10.6.2.
I can imagine how people who were unaware of the issue were using something that triggered the bug most or all the time, so on looking for the symptoms by such as playing iTunes don't see any change (the temperature rise & power drain is not accumulative with more evocations of audio).
My take on those in denial or who actually don't see the symptoms is that they have an attack of heresy horror or are suffering the problem all the time anyway (hence don't see the change).
I tried a 2.26 dual machine in the Applestore, the temperature jump was nowhere near as large as on my machine. But I put that down to it being clean (and I wonder if 2.26 systems show it less than the faster CPUs).
But there was still a significant step up in temperature and power drain.
And the same machine, I expect, would show seriously high temperatures if executing audio (other than through a PCIe card) (or equivalent Firewire load) and under heavy load from any application that taxes all cores.
So yes, a set up showing say a 30C to 50C change (with commensurate power drain) is no big issue, a waste of resources and an inconvenient little bug. But the same machine under different circumstances now roasting up into the 90C range (and this with winter ambient temperatures), well that's another issue.
That puts the CPUs beyond Intel's operational ceiling (~70C). And to be told by Apple that everything is within operational parameters is just crass.
These are heavy duty workstations, not laptops, they are meant for sustained hard work. It is appropriate for them to used to do big batch tasks and worked to extremes.
It is not OK for a bug that makes them overheat and lose performance to be brushed aside as irrelevant.
IMO
