How far to tighten springs

[DeusExMachina]

Hey all. I've been a long time lurker, and I just registered today. Last Saturday I put in my watercooling set up after absorbing the info here and ordering my stuff.

It runs *great*, coolest I've ever had with my T-Bird 1.2ghz. (OC'd to 1.37 atm). 31C idle, 33C load. With the loud-ass Papst off it sits around 40C.

Question I had was, how far should I tighten the springs on my WB? I've got a Maze3 with their mounting kit and tightened evenly. My friend said to tighten it all the way, but I don't want to crush the core.

[Frodo Baggins]

tighten it all the way. I'm no 100% sure, but those springs should be 5 lber each. AMD specs is 20 lbs pressure, so you should tighten them all the way. Can someone verify that those are 5 lbs springs?

[Iron Hawk]

Yes, those springs are probably close to 5lbs each, and you should tighten them up until they are fully compressed.

[Gravity Man]

On my maze 2 I had initially tightened them evenly, but not all the way. After about 6 months of running like that, I decided to see if I could get any improvement from tightening them all the way. I got a 2-3 degree drop accross the board. I wouldn't be too worried about cracking the core either, unless you are applying uneven pressure.

[nealric]

Defintetly go all the way- it would be pretty hard to hurt it with 5lb springs.

[Ottoman]

i tore the pads off my cpu, and i slammed my maze3 on, compressed all the way...

my cpu isn't even breaking a sweat.... my temps are rediculous

[Iron Hawk]

If you take care and apply the pressure evenly, it is very difficult to damage the core.