Got mine from Newegg too, I've still got my old Tbird 1.4 (running at approx. 1.5 (11x133). I'm waiting for the Hammer Release on Sept. 23 and I'll probably pick up a cheap barton around then. I've had my Tbird over 1.6 easy with my old Iwill KK266, but the temps that are being reported to be by MBM seem too low and the Tbird doesn't have the die sensor (only in socket), so I'm playing it "safe" until I get the new cpu and bios, then I'll have a spare (hehehe
). I haven't played with the memory timings much either, I have 1x256 Samsung PC-2700 DDR (supposed to OC to 433), I've had the board for less than a month (I hated to retire my KK266, it was a great board), so I'm still "breaking it in" and I haven't had alot of time to play with it. I've been researching this board for about 3 months, that's why I know alot about it, and that's why I picked it (over a Soltek). I haven't had hardly any problems at all with mine (knock on wood). Have you checked out that forum (the link isn't working for me today)? I've gotten alot of great information there, AMDMB.com also has a great gigabyte forum.
As for the MCP/MCP-T issue, Tom's has a great article on onboard sound here:
http://www.tomshardware.com/game/20030405/index.html Basically the MCP-T is (as I understand) a kind of co-processor to the Audio chip on the board (Realtek ALC650) both working together to take the audio load off of the CPU (MCP-T handles dolby decoding chores etc... the audio chip hadles the analog chores). From the benchmarks it really does make a difference! Also many people with SB Audigy cards have found the on-board audio to be as good or better.
Cooling: Thermalright ROCKS!!! I've got the SK7 from newegg ($20) and a Thermaltake 80mm case fan (cut and soldered the thermistor so it runs high speed all the time). I posted a review there about it (check out the OC.com link!), truly a superb heatsink. Performance/Noise will depend on what fan you use: more air (cfms) = more noise/better performance, and I'm sure you get the picture...
I hope this information helps, I'm sorry I can't give you more personal experience, I'm still experimenting with mine as well (and I've still got alot of parts to get). From what I've read the board can be a little picky about Ram and Power Supplies. Also the F9 bios have a problem with dual channel ram, the F10 bios cause the MAC address on the NIC to be 000.000.000, and the F11's are new and they are supposed to be okay. This weekend when I have time I'm going to play with Pr3ach3rs Hardm3nu/F11 bois. I'll let you know how it goes. Goodluck, and let me know if I can be of any further help.