Should I Tighten the Screws on My SP-97?

I was reading a thread that says you should tighten the spring loaded screws on the Thermalright SLK-947 until the springs are fully compressed. In other words tighten them all of the way. I was wondering if I should do the same on my SP-97. I really don't want to crush my CPU so I'm asking first. The instructions said "tighten the screws until the stand-offs move a little bit." That is pretty vauge so I interpreted it as back off a little from fully tighten on the stand-offs. Then tighten the spring-loaded screws until the standoffs turn a small amount. That leaves the spring loaded screws far from fully tightened. So if I should tighten them all of the way then I could probably knock off a few degrees from my temp.

Thanks.

ZACHM,

I have an SLK947-U attached to my motherboard (I had to modify it to fit). I do not have any problems with it and I tightened the screws to just "lightly hand tightened", by that I mean I did not go brutal on it but made sure they were snug. I was concerned about too much pressure too...but everything is A OK so far. Don't know if this will help you. I hope you can give yours a try.

i fully tightened my 947u by using a pair of pliers, this alows the best possible contact with the chip for cooling, if its seated properly and provided you dont then try and force beyond where it doesnt easily tighten anymore you'll be fine...

Tornado Guy

I have trusted Vrykyl's advice before. He did not steer me wrong. I may have to tighten my heatsink some more based on this new information from Vrykyl's post.

Thanks for the praise rdrash, hope to see a post on your very cool shuttle-947 mod soon
just remember never to force anything, thats when things get broken. gently turn the standoffs and screws until they stop turning at that pressure...simple as that, safe and very secure

Tornado Guy

you can tighten thermalright bolts until they bottom out.

Ok, thanks. I'll tighten them down. Hopefully I can get more of a temp decrease.

I tightened mine all of the way, just make sure you go in criss-cross order with the screws.

shouldnt there be a torque study done for this?
i mean the intake bolts on a 96-98 gmc/chevy were supposed to be tightened to 11 ft pnds and almost everyone of them leaked around 80000 miles or less. turned out about 9 pnds was better.

no, because thermalright does a good job with thier heatsinks and most people bottem out the screws.

i have a sp-97 on the 2600+ chip (in sig) in a FIC mobo...the standoffs i tightened by using a pair of pliers, then fully compressed the springs and backed off 1/8 turn.

the chip is running 2.48GHz (181x13.5 @ 2.0V) no pci lock on mobo. with a Smart fanII and a side panel duct, im getting 40C after 2.5 hour of prime