If I don't drill and make the 8 holes bigger and instead opt for shorter screws and fix the motherboard on it, without fixing it on the board, will it be effective? And even if I drill the board, do I have to use 3 steel and 1 nylon washer. What if I maintain the same height made by those washers and use a bigger nylon washer and a steel nut or only a big 3 mm nylon washer, will it cause a problem? Thanks!

i have never drilled any holes doing x-clamp fix. i have done dozens of them and i have never had a problem.

I simply use 2 vinyl and 2 steel washers with half inch screws and it works good for me.

also, i have tried penny fix on a few rrod and it has never worked for me, so i kinda feel that one is bogus.

when i did my first couple RRODs I would drill the cage, but I gave up on it one day and tried without, same results. Yes, its nice and uniform, but most usually not necessary.

sometimes on pesky 0020s and 0102s i put 3 pennies under a thermal pad wrapped in electric tape. give it a little heatgun or towel and voila. the penny trick IS useful.

yep. i never drilled and have done many Xclamp mods.......

I've actually only cleaned the CPU and GPU, applied a very thin coat of arctic silver, reassembled everything, and have been successful with three 360s. No drilling or vinyl washers, all original parts.

Thanks for the help guys!