What the heck is this part that came with my NCCH-DL board?

[loafer87gt]

Finally got the last of my parts needed for my dually Xeon build. I have everything more or less figured out except for what the heck these retention brackets are to be used for. There is no mention of them in the NCCH-DL manual, but I'm sure Asus included them for a reason. Following the directions in the manual, everything fit perfectly in my Antec case, but I left wondering if I did something wrong because I still have these two brackets left over. :(

Anyways, I am really looking forward to getting things up and running. Here is a list of what I am using for my build.

Asus NCCH-DL Motherboard
2 x Intel Low Voltage Diamond ES 2.4 Xeons
2 x E3W-NPTXS-04 Coolermaster Heatsinks
Enermax 6501 EPS Power Supply
2x1024 Dual Channel Cas2 3200 TwinX Kit
1 x 74 GB Raptor System Drive
2 x 200 GB Seagate Drives in Raid 1
BFG 6800 GT OC Video Card
Zalman VF700-CU VGA Cooler
2 x 21" Sony Trinitron Monitors (Dell P1130)

Hopefully everything goes smoothly. The only thing I know right away that is going to cause a problem is the placement of the lower VRM heatsink above the AGP slot. What I plan on doing is removing the stock heatsink and placing ram sinks and an side case fan directing air over the sinks. I would cut the lower fins off the stock sink, but then Asus would likely void my warranty. This way if something is fubar'd with my board, I can reinstall the old sink and paste and be good to go again. Anyways, wish me luck.

http://jlvisuals.homeip.net/pics/xeon/1.jpg

Here is the bracket thingy's I was talking about.

The rest of the stuff

http://jlvisuals.homeip.net/pics/xeon/2.jpg

http://jlvisuals.homeip.net/pics/xeon/3.jpg

http://jlvisuals.homeip.net/pics/xeon/4.jpg

[DaveB]

Looks like a Nocona heatsink mounting bracket. It's not needed for Prestonias.

[David]

Very... very... very nice indeed :)

[loafer87gt]

So I don't need to use then even though I am using Nocona Heatsinks for my Prestonia's? The Nocona heatsinks were the only ones that fit correctly with this board - the old school Prestonia Wind Tunnels that I got with my chips had a totally different mounting bracket that just wasn't going to work with this board.

So if I do need to use these, where the heck do I clip or mount them? I am assuming they go between the case standoffs and the backside of the board. Does anyone have any diagrams or anything?

Thanks in advance!

[DaveB]

Yes that's where they go. The four little clips hold them in the motherboard mounting holes. I just went through this Friday helping a friend with his new Supermicro dual 3.4 GHz setup. Since he didn't have the correct case, we had to go to Home Depot to pick up eight nuts that would thread onto the heatsink screws.

[loafer87gt]

Ok, thanks. So basically they are just there if you are running the board in a case that doesn't have the standoff's in the right location to screw the heatsink into. Being as my Antec case seems to have the screws in the right location, I guess I don't need to use them - right?

Here is a pick of motherboard installed in my case now.

http://jlvisuals.homeip.net/pics/xeon/5.jpg

Just want to make sure before I start installing the rest of the goodies.

[DaveB]

No you're supposed to use them between the standoffs and the motherboard. The guy I helped just didn't buy the correct case. I showed him a Supermicro case that would have been perfect but it was too late. The Supermicro case had the holes for the standoffs, but still required that the brackets be used.