CPU cooler--how tight is right?

[jadeite]

I have the Silverstone NT06 CPU cooler in the Silverstone SG01 case. The cooler is anchored down by 4 spring loaded thumb screws. The instructions do not say how tight to make them. I applied the contact lube and brought them down evenly and pretty tight, but did not force them all the way down to fully compressed springs. The system has an E6600 and cores are about 40C in a room with temp about 25C.

 

[silentassassin]

Tighter is better! If it's not tight enough the poor contact between cpu & cooler will cause the cpu to heatup more than it should be.

As long as you didn't hear your MB crack, or get any cabling stuck it should be ok.

 

[JonnyDough]

You might be able to twist the heatsink a little bit with a tiny bit of effort and feel how tight it really is. As long as it's snug and not going to let space get in between the CPU and the heatsink it's fine. It doesn't have to be attached with such force that you can't twist it a little (provided it's connected at two points), but it should be tight enough that you could almost pick your motherboard up by it and not have it seperate from the CPU (don't actually try to do this though). The force it takes for different brackets varies. The stock AMD cooler for my socket 939 CPU's seem to be harder to attach then my enormous Zalman CNPS9500 which weighs a lot more. Although it weighs a lot more, it still stays put - even when the motherboard is vertical in the case. So it really comes down to logic. If it seems like it's not going to seperate, good. If it doesn't crack the die when you force it down (and CPU's with evenly distributed downard pressure can take a good deal of weight) then you're good. You're more likely to break your motherboard than the CPU, which is why you should work on a flat even surface when installing CPU coolers. I usually put foam underneath the anti-static bag and put my motherboard on that to help distribute weight off the solder points on my mobo if I'm pushing down hard to install a cooler.

 

[babaghan]

I like my CPU cooler tight too, but I have no idea when my mobo is just below the "crack threshold" 8O

 

[JonnyDough]

Well if you ever took apart an old appliance and found a chipboard inside and tried breaking it, you'll know it's pretty durable. Takes a pliers to break it if it's as thick as a mobo is. Motherboards are pretty strong. The real danger lies in the traces inside, if the board gets bent the traces tear/break. I urge you to get an idea of how strong it is if you're that concerned. Go to a local shop and ask them if they have any really old mobo's that are junk laying around. If you give the board a fairly solid backing when you apply pressure on the clamps, you should be ok. It isn't THAT easy to break a mobo.