About 2 months ago my one year old Gigabyte motherboard fried. After checking around on the net I found this to be an issue with this motherboard around this time frame. Anyway, I am concerned that this bad motherboard may have taken my CPU as well as this damage took place near my CPU but not next to it. However, I will not know about this CPU damage for sure unless I put this processor in my new ASUS motherboard. After being without a new computer for this 2 months I am not in the mood for another RMA. I also got one of those newer, greener, lower powered processors but it is not as fast as my older power hungry processor that I got a year ago. So like everyone else out there I want faster but not if it means another RMA. So in your expert opinons out there, am I safe to try this processor in this new motherboard or should I brake the seal on the box and use the new lower power green processer. Opinions please and thank you.

No not unless you overclocked your processor and jacked up the cpu voltage which could have then fried both the processor and the motherboard at the same time. If you didn't overclock your system and your motherboard just died then your CPU isn't going to be effected. The CPU should be fine if your motherboard just died. Even if you are concerned with the cpu it's not going to effect the motehrboard if it is damaged because more times then not its simply not going to operate at all. If the old CPU works in which it should then RMA the new CPU. Iron Sharpens Iron.