A wise old Romulan once schooled me in the ways of viewing other's screens.
I stated earlier that I saw the largest impact when I delved into cpu-tweaker. It was the very first time I had ever messed with it and for me was purely trial and error (numerous bsod's).
Next on the list I would say using the Olive theme. All the time prior to the contest I just thought I had been using it lol. (I'm such a noob)
Getting the ram/cpu in the sweet spot was high on the list. You will notice that once it was found I never varied from it. I tried many combinations and always returned to it.
Running 16k and cycling themes had an impact...just not sure how much yet. One thing is certain...it wasnt negative.
Thanks once again Splave!
Edit: Of course, finally going to two cores and trying the wounded 980X was a win - win situation. Also the suggestion about trying different mb bios's was valid. I did try this and it just so happened that I already had the golden one installed.