1) I tried not to use the Affinity Mask tweak, but when installing ASN it prompted me to do so, and I accepted it, setting my AM at 14, the correct value for my "old" i5 2500 with no HT...

Good point. If the addon uses core 0 then we might want to start FS on core 1 to avoid it, by masking core 0, as an AM=14=(1110) demonstrates (on a 4 core). On the HT enabled version (8LPs) use AM=248=(11,11,10,00).

...with the dual core, leave it in HT enabled, use AM=14=(11,10) and accept that the addon will occupy the same core as the main FS thread.

With HT enabled (in the bios) use AM=254=(11,11,11,10). If you're getting too hot with the OC, disable HT and remove the JOBSCHEDULER section (AM=0).

OK, thanks for reminding me to watch my system temps with the 254 AM.

 

Really appreciate the quick reply Steve!