New Builder--AMD CPU Heatsink Installation Question

[DaveEG]

Component list below:

I managed to get the power supply in the case with now issues :)

I'm about 99.995 percent sure I have the CPU installed correctly on motherboard. The reference marks line up, it seated nicely with minimal effort. The bar locked easily into place. It was secure once the bar was lowered.

My question is this. How much pressure should I have to use to get the Heatsink clasps around the clips on both sides of it mounting bracket.

The way this works is a clasp assembly travels through the center of the cooler. You hook both sides over some tab attached to the mother board, and pull a lever on the clasp assembly to tighten.

I would have to expend a little force to get the fasteners over the clips on the motherboard. Is that to be expected?

If you are familiar with this processor, the copper base on the bottom of the heatsink is not quite mated to the blue bracket that supports it and surrounds the CPU. There is about a 1/16" (maybe a little less) gap. It is clearly resting on the CPU, however to get good contact I would think it would need to be to some extent?

I also am unsure if the level side of the heat sink should go toward the center of the motherboard, or toward the edge. It appears to be designed to fit either way.

Before I get a little more aggressive with it, and stretch the clasps a bit, I wanted to see if anyone had built a similar system before and could lend some insight.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I have used about 2.5 amount of force so far. Basically enough to say, "I'm not sure I should have to work this hard."

I get the feeling that pulling the lever over will be very tight if I continue on like it is now. Should that be the case?

[zburns]

Hi DaveEG,

You left out a few things. Please provide the catalog numbers and manufacturers name for the following: cpu, motherboard and cooler. With that information, myself or others can look up pictures of your components and visualize exactly what you are trying to do as well as read the installation instructions. Then we can be pretty precise in our comments. I, or others, can recognize from the above what you are talking about -- but the chances for misinterpretation exist in the absence of our being able to 'see' the exact components.

[DaveEG]

Sorry about that, I copied that info but forgot to paste it. This is the AMD recommendation from the top thread in this forum.


Case COOLER MASTER RC-692-KKN2 CM690 II Advanced

Power Supply CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W

Motherboard GIGABYTE GA-890GPA-UD3H AM3 AMD 890GX HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0

CPU AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache

Ram G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333

Video Card EVGA 01G-P3-1373-AR GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) Superclocked

Hard Drive Western Digital Caviar Black WD6402AAEX 640GB

Optical Drive ASUS Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW

[zburns]

I am afraid I am still puzzled. There is no heatsink/cooler in the above list. That is unless you are using the fan asembly that came with the AMD cpu. But in that case, your above description, first thread, does not 'sound' like a AMD (cpu) supplied cooler.

Your description sounds more like Zalman, Coolermaster, some others with heatsink, large cooler fin assembly with a 'spring like lever' that hooks on one side of the 'motherboard mount (supplied with cooler assembly), goes over the top of the cooler heatsink, under the cooling fins, and 'latches with force on the other side of the heatsink'. The obvious reason I need the cat number is not only to see the 'lever', but the mounting bracket that you mount to the motherboard, all the parts that come with the mounting bracket and the instructions for assembly. Ultimately the force you must use to push down the lever is determined by the 'absolutely correct assembly of the mounting bracket to the motherboard'. There are mulitple parts supplied with the bracket that are used depending on 'what manufacturers cpu' is being used.

Summing up, I am looking for pictures of all the parts of the cooler and instructions as supplied by the cooler manufacturer. I am sure you understand all that I am saying. When you state that the heatsink is not quite mated to the cpu, that seems to indicate a problem, but I cannot comment further without looking at the 'cooler manufacturers instructions and pictures I pull up on the manufacturers website'.

Best place to get the part # and name is off the manufacturers box the cooler was packaged in!

[DaveEG]

It is the heatsink/fan that came in the box with the CPU. The clamping assembly was pre-assembled.

I have not seen good pictures of my assembly anywhere, not even in the material that came with it. However, looking for information to answer your questions led me to a series of youtube videos. One was on a somewhat similar design from AMD. Several reviews mentioned the need to apply "scary" amounts of pressure.

The best advice I've found so far is to use a flat head screwdriver and apply force to just the clamp assembly, not the heatsink itself.

I think I'm going to give it a try with a few mentions of "force" being required.

[zburns]

You are using the cooler that came in the box with the cpu. This also means that there is a 'large fold up sheet of instructions' in multiple languages (probably). The sheet, unfolded will have 'drawings' instead of photos of the 'cooler assembly' and instructions on how to install the the motherboard mounting assembly (bracket) to the motherboard. There will then be instructions on how to install the fan/cooler assembly to that bracket.

Follow the instructions -- exactly -- no deviations. Do not assume anything!! If the instructions appear to be ambiguous, assume that is not so, and you figure out logically what it is that you do not understand. It would be irresponsible for AMD to ship cpu and fan / cooler assembly with instructions that are not perfectly clear. (If you are not a 'mechanically inclined' person, there could be - theoretically - some statements in the AMD instructions that do not make sense to you - because you are doing something for the first time -- but that could be perfectly normal for a novice. All I am saying is that if you do not understand an instruction, give it some time, walk away from it, come back to it -- it has to make sense to you at some point.

Sorry to be giving a 'lecture'. I am only trying to help you avoid a mistake. If you are going by a video for the install, make sure the cooler in the video and the mounting bracket on the mobo looks exactly the same as what is in your box. I looked at several videos and saw two separate and different coolers.

If you know for a fact that the cooler in the video and the bracket for the mobo, are identical, and still need help, post the 'url' address (upper top left "http:// xxxxxxxx is the address of the page you are looking at).