After installing the stock cooler that came with my 775 intel core 2 quad processor I was amazed at the amount of force I needed to connect it.

Now that I have a new cooler that uses screws and a backplate instead of the snap legs on stock cooler I'm not to sure how tight it should be.

So does it have to be extremely tight?

How can I know?

I just keep tightening it a lot and then try to wiggle the heatsink. If it wobbles at all, then you definitely need more. If it doesn't, and it's like it pretty much part of the motherboard, then you're probably good.

With my Tuniq Tower, it's really tight against the motherboard, but I can still turn the screws a little more. I haven't gotten to the point where it wouldn't turn at all, but that would probably break the motherboard. But still, it's pretty hard to turn the screws.

Once you start doing it, I'm sure you'll be able to tell if it's good enough or not.

And if later you decide that it isn't tight enough, you can always tighten it a little more. I usually twist the screws a little when I dust out my case, just in case it comes a little loose over time.

The type of cooler would be good to know. Usually the cooler has springs on the screws and you should tighten them until they stop.

The TRUE has springs on the screws. I put them all the way down into the back plate.

I found this. Heatsink Pressure vs Performance

Thanks Everyone, nice find Zorg