Is the Thermalright U-120 too heavy?

As it is there's no way a heavy hsf like the Ultra 120 or Tuniq Tower 120 could damage a mobo just because of it's weight. The load plate that goes on the back of the mobo does it's job well, it evenly distributes the stress of the 4 screws used to mount the Ultra 120 across the mobo. PCBs are alot more durable then most people realize. I always pick up my mobo by it's hsf, since it's easier to lift out of the case and I dont get grease and crap from my fingers on the PCB.

The back plate spreads the weight out over a large surface. It's from Thermalright, IT HAS TO BE GOOD. haha.. they really put alot of thought in their designs and i trust them.


I do the exact same for the same reasons.

Any 120mm fan will do.. People seem to like the sythe queit fans. They are a little more expensive but queit and with it. I agree with this but i needed... aka wanted a blue led fan for everything in my case so i took a roswell fan. I have a fan control so i dont worry much I just turn everything down when idle and general use. I initially got a queit 1000rpm fan that i found i put at 100% all the time. I'd get something that moves more air. Something that pushes over 40cfm 60 would be good at max. These coolers are great though. among the best if the the best.

Don't worry about it, they both come with backplates, I know someone that's using the ultra 120 extreme on an ihsless cpu, so I wouldn't fret about that

Yeah, it's not too heavy. Once you get it fastened down it's quite secure.

I personally am not worried about the ultra 120 series, what actually concerns me is the ifx-14, that thing's a beast, in fact it's practically two ultra120s glued together with 8 massive 8mm heatpipes and a humongous back side cooler (which to me looks like a modded hr-05 or hr-01)

That is true, but even at that weight I don't think any real damage could result unless you had your case in a car and hit some big bumps or you dropped your case, in which case (pun?) you would probably have bigger problems to deal with  

Once a motherboard is screwed into the case, it is pretty damn sturdy. Try to break an old piece of PCB, it's tough stuff, and the traces are so thin that they can handle a decent amount of flex.

And don't forget they basically laminate it with either that black or green/red stuff anyways to protect the internal stuff, so they're pretty sturdy

Yeah, I like that you used technical terms to make sure we know it's really strong! :wink:

I have the big typhoon vx. Mine doesn't have a backplate though, it came with a lever like the standard AM2 HSF. If the pc just sits there then no problems. Just don't be too aggressive when carrying it to a lan or whatever. I try to carry it (or when I put it in the car) with the mobo at the bottom so that there is no force sideways that'll do anything to the mobo. Though it should be fine otherwise they wouldn't have cleared it for retail.

I wouldn't worry about damaging the PCB, but I would worry about enough width to stuff that beast into your rig. Good, quiet, inexpensive fans: Yate Loon D12SL-12 -> a great fan and at $5 a pop you can't afford not to try it out.

And some sites have a deal of 5 for $15 (not sure on shipping though), so for the price of two noctua fans, you could get 5 yate loons and fan controller and get more performance out of them