Stock fan for i7 920 and protection plans

[waynegman]

I popped my i7 920 into my evga x58 board and was looked to put the stock heatsink/fan on it that came with the 920.

I was sort of shocked that it did not have a small tube or packet of contact glue to put a dab on the 920. Is this normal? The directions didn't mention to put anything between the heatsink and the cpu. Just pop the fan cooler over the cpu and push down on all 4 corners till they snapped into the motherboard. plug the cpu in and go.

I'm guessing this is the way its done but I'm a bit shocked as this does not seem condusive for optimal heat disipation for just a moderate cooling solution. I just wanted to bounce it out to the veterans out there before I fire this baby up this weekend.

Oh and lastly when I went to microcenter they wanted to sell me a protection plan (2yr) for my i7 920 build for about $250. Do many people get this to cover their builds just to be able to take the problem back to microcenters. I typically never take any coverage like this unless my kids are involved. Protection plans on cell phones for kids or coverage for a high schooler's laptop sure, but this stuff no. If you don't use it for a living I gotta think you have to say no. Yes? No?

Wayne

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Stock coolers are generally equipped w/ a thermal "pad" which contains a thermal transfer material that is in solid form at room temperature. This pad "melts" under CPU load temps and spreads out. After a few thermal cycles, it does a half way decent job but not really suitable for OC'ing.

 

[cjl]

The intel stuff is definitely a paste, not a pad. Don't try to mess with it - just leave it on and let it spread itself out when you apply the CPU. If I remember right, intel's thermal goop is actually just as good as many of the high end thermal compounds. Their heatsink is what is somewhat subpar.

Careful with the latching - it is pretty easy with the pushpin-style coolers to not fully latch all 4 corners, which will result in very high temperatures.

 

[rodney_ws]

A $250 protection plan? YIKES! That sounds like a raw deal any way you look at it.

 

[waynegman]

yup rodney $250.....soon as I heard that I pretty much had the ear plugs in but that level of support was to bring back the my built box and show them that it was functional. Then for 2 years with whatever HW problem I could bring it back and they would help make it go away. If something was bad the guy implied there was a gray zone where maybe I did something wrong (even my watercooling) but if it wasn't obvious abuse I could maybe get by with something that a MFG would immediately flag you for a Non coverage situation. They don't to any great extent to figure out why the CPU/GPU/MoBo died. I do believe they have replaced some overtemp damaged stuff and that might be worth someones money or for my money just save the $250 and replace the part down the line for new tech or at least reduced costs. No one component costs more than $250 in my $1400 i7 920 build. I don't live life expecting double failures but I will unplug my pc in a bad thunderstorm sometimes ;-)