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How much do you tighten the heatsink to the CPU?

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Garfield

Member
Joined
Dec 1, 2001
Location
New Jersey
I was reading the directions on tightening and putting on teh heatsink and it was slightly confusing about when to stop screwing on the heatsink. Can somebody give me an idea of when is enough tightening?
 
well am sure you will just know when its right
when it takes force to move it you have it
its your looking for a touque value i dunno
good luck
 
stop if u hear a cracking sound :p


but seriously u should go in a in an X pattern evenly screwing them down... they should have springs on the bolts, those work best and safest I'd say
 
Springs are a pile...those springs loose tension in just a week or so and temps will rise due to that...

I use direct screws... I use a SHIM!!!!! and I tighten TILL I CANT NO MORE...Practically... and I tend to use a big screwdriver...

But as Ottoman said... use an X pattern..
 
Garfield said:
I was reading the directions on tightening and putting on teh heatsink and it was slightly confusing about when to stop screwing on the heatsink. Can somebody give me an idea of when is enough tightening?
with your hsf you turn the screws to the left just the oppisite of tightening I know it's wierd but that is how it works the springs are what applies the pressure not the screws just stop when you feel that you have good pressure I felt like if I kept tighting or loosening what ever you want to call it the screw would come out
losen one side a little then loosen the other then keep going back and forth that way until you get the right amount of pressure

highlander you are talking about a completely different type of hsf. the one we are talking about uses the tabs on the socket
 
If you want to get the right amout of pressure onto the heatsink, use thumbscrews to replace the default screws and screww until it is hard to move the heatsink. To maintain good contact you should pop your case open every now and again and tighten your screws as the torque pressure causes them to back out. I work for as a consultant for marquardt switches in Cazenovia NY, we had the same problem with the heatsink on our black and decker model 3 12 volt cordless drills. The thermal compound bettween the mosfet and heatsink caused the screw's backout torgue to be lowered to about 30Neuton M instead of the desired 100Neuton M... oh sh*t, im rambling, oh well, just try what I told ya and it should work fine.:beer: Good luck
 
well neither of you know what your even talking about ever hsf is different and it sounds like you don't have any experience with the swiftech mcxc 370
 
The Highlander said:
I have a waterblock swiftech MCW462 and a MCX462

Those are my heatsinks!!
those are nice I have an mc 462 and a mcxc 370. cant go wrong with swiftech. I know what you mean by screws loosening but that does apply to the mcxc 370 completely different setups.
by the way have you seen the new mcw 462u
 
Hmmmm...so I just tighten the screws and when I feel some pressure I stop. Then, I shouldn't be able to move the heatsink? I'm still a little in teh fog about this :D
 
you don't tighten screw. you loosen and the spring puts pressure on heatsink & chip. when you tighten it compress spring
 
DON'T do direct screw tightening... without springs ...!!!

use the springs provided or at least rubber spacers between your cooler and the screw...

I've crushed my mobo when tightening directly the waterblock...
and I didn't apply much pressure...

whatever you do, do it carefully...
 
Fahrell said:
DON'T do direct screw tightening... without springs ...!!!

use the springs provided or at least rubber spacers between your cooler and the screw...

I've crushed my mobo when tightening directly the waterblock...
and I didn't apply much pressure...

whatever you do, do it carefully...
for water cooling your temp suck. a hsf would do better than that
 
Till the day I break it.... jejeje.. I will be more careful now...
but hey.. I dont have a crappy board... I have a KG7

WOW like if it were much... you might say... its not much... but its better than average!!! :D

I like abit!!!


but I do tighten very hard...

Well thanks
 
To "tighten" my swiftech, you screw the screw counter clockwise, as the directions say. But, how do I know when is enough screwing?
 
if you see your swiftech instructions it will tell you to screw until it bottoms out.

the springs will give the necessary tension to the CPU according to AMD specs...

But... My springs never adjusted counterclockwise... so... idont know..

Today I used artic silver 3

I am updating my signature to 1872MHz from 1866!!! jejjee
 
res0r9lm said:
whenever you can't move it anymore

Really!? So, I just tighten it until...I can't!? Won't that might put too much pressure on the die and just the CPU as a whole? I didn't really understand the heatsink directions. When you counterclockwise the screw, does it put more or less tension on the spring and does it tighten or loosen? Thanks!
 
simply screw till you cant screw any more ;-)


till its "finger-tight"...meaning dont screw as hard as you could like as with a pair of pliers, but simply till you cant turn anymore with your thumb and forefinger...if you go unterclockwise then the springs will loosen
 
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