An email or chat with Newegg (whichever they do, haven't had to contact them in years) might get them to ship out an updated mobo for free (or little cost) over the purchase price.

I don't know about emailing or contacting AMD, I didn't read it that close, you might not need to speak to anyone (maybe it says on the forums by now). They apparently ship fast because people already have them in hand, and the chips haven't been out that long. If the boot kit comes with the RMA already setup, it might include the shipping label to send back already (or you print it). I haven't had many returns with online places, but any I have had, completely automatic without speaking to anyone, then you can just hand the package to UPS/Fedex/USPS (I'm 30 miles from a dropoff, so I typically order something else and have them pick up anything I need to ship when they deliver something else, otherwise they charge $15 to do a pickup only here, not USPS of course...). The only thing I do different is take a video of the return packaging and labeling process, just in case. Same thing I do with mail in rebates.... In the case of this I would also video the working system and chip removal, pins after removal, etc. Or pictures. Doesn't add much time to the process.

Getting an updated board in the first place without the messing around would of course be the best and easiest option.

Up to you. I will say you will like the new system. My old one was fairly fast, i3 with an SSD, but this one is MUCH faster, most things come up almost instantly, just nice to mess with. Doubt there's much noticeable difference in daily use with the i5 and what you're getting.