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Will those 3lb HSF's cause mobo damage in a tower over time?

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C

Crazy_Canuck

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Oct 6, 2007
I would liek to know because I cannot see how having those massive motorcycle intakes hanging off of my board as being good for it.

I understand they are needed and I understand that what they do I am asking specifically about the sheer size of them and if any mobo's have been damaged as a direct result of having them installed.

Or am I missing something here?

CC.
 
Most heavy heatsinks come with backplates to mount them on. These backplates take the stress from the motherboard so worry not.
 
inkfx said:
If everything is tightened down properly you shouldn't have to worry about it snapping your mobo. ;)
Click to expand...

Hrm..ok...my worry wasn't really with snapping it as I doubt that would happen but I don't want the socket itself to rip out....if you know what I mean...or the screw holes to rip out.

Thanks for the reply.

CC.
 
ancalime said:
Most heavy heatsinks come with backplates to mount them on. These backplates take the stress from the motherboard so worry not.
Click to expand...

dang so that means that I'll have to take the mobo out...lol dang it I just put it in there...bah...thanks...as you can tell I am new to all this oc'ing stuf...

Thank for your reply as well that makes more sense now.

CC.
 
The heatsink isn't actually attached to the socket (just rests on it) so there is no way it could be pulled off. No way I could see it tear through the screw holes, either. Just doesn't seem feasable. I've built quite a few rigs with these tower coolers and haven't encountered any problems.
 
inkfx said:
The heatsink isn't actually attached to the socket (just rests on it) so there is no way it could be pulled off. No way I could see it tear through the screw holes, either. Just doesn't seem feasable. I've built quite a few rigs with these tower coolers and haven't encountered any problems.
Click to expand...

LOL...ok thanks. It's just that I am spending a lot of money(well a lot for me) on this and buying it piece by piece every week and I dont want to bust it on the first week. If I fry a part in six months I can deal with that...lol but I need some time with it first.

Thanks again.

CC.
 
Impossible for that to happen with the backplate mounted. I own an Ultra 120, Ultra 120 eXtreme, a Tuniq Tower 120, a SI-120 and have owned a Zalman 9500. The mounts for all those are very sturdy and the backplates support the whole socket area, including the motherboard around the socket. Just go to Newegg's website and look at the pictures they have of the various heatsinks I mentioned and you will see what we are talking about.
 
don't worry.... have you ever tried to break a motherboard with your bare hands? They are tougher than you think and can take it.
 
If you don't want to take your mobo out, you can always use the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro or Ultra 90. Both are great middle range heatsinks.
 
Last edited:
Mudd: yeah I have done that a lot actually but I didn't know that they were installed like that....that would make sense to have a backplate though... This question must sound silly ...lol...

DaPoets: Not recently...yeah I know what you mean though...

ancalime: Thanks, will look into them more closely...

As I say I am only going to OC it with the Asus software at first and the most I can adjust things are by 10-15% so I dont know how hot it will get...Once I gain a further undestanding I will go for more dangerous clocks but for now I will tread carefully.

Thanks for not flaming me and thanks for the replies.

CC.

EDIT - Now that I see(at Newegg) and understand how they are installed. I am now scared to have one without a backplate as the ones that clip on seem less sturdy...hehe...Wow this post has gone full circle quickly...ha!
 
Don't use the Asus software. Read up on some stickies and use the BIOS, it isn't as hard as you may think.

And the pins are actually quite sturdy, but if you want the best of the best heatsinks, you are going to have to deal with backplates.
 
Anca and ink : will do thanks for the heads up. I thought that since it came with it it must be good...shoulda known hehe...

Thanks again.

CC.
 
I'll also say for you to not mess with the Asus software for overclocking. I started overclocking before all this fancy software was around and you actually had to change jumpers on the mobo to overclock. When they moved it to the bios it was a big improvement in ease of overclocking and by learning how to overclock with the bios I think you will actually learn more about how your machine runs. And nowdays, most motherboards have a failsafe built into the bios to where if the settings you you set are wrong, the board will boot in failsafe mode so that you can reset your settings. And if by some chance that doesn't work right there is always the good old clear cmos jumper, which will reset the bios settings to default.
 
No problem. :) If you have a C2D, the sticky on top of the Intel CPU section is a great place to start. Other than that, google always works well.

What are your specs so far?
 
Crazy_Canuck
Why not list the components you propose to use to make your system and then get tips n tricks from the OCrs? There is a wealth of information available from the bunch at this website.
I take it your getting an ASUS mobo....make sure it is a socket AM2 you will have a wider choice of CPUs. Have fun........
 
Crazy_Canuck said:
I would liek to know because I cannot see how having those massive motorcycle intakes hanging off of my board as being good for it.

I understand they are needed and I understand that what they do I am asking specifically about the sheer size of them and if any mobo's have been damaged as a direct result of having them installed.

Or am I missing something here?

CC.
Click to expand...

The backplates spread the stress of supporting the heatsinks over a wider area so it makes it impossible for the heatsink to totally rip away from the mainboard like they used to with push-pins. That said, the backplate design still puts the burden of supporting the heatsink on the mainboard and I've heard some people talk about it bending the mainboard a bit. To be honest though, the backplates are really beefy and you shouldn't have any problems.

To ease my concerns though and preserve my ability to move my box more worry-free I took the additional step of bolting my backplate to my mainboard tray. It took a bit of fiddling to get the height of it perfect, and it doesn't take all of the stress off of the mainboard (since the mainboard is still wedged between the backplate and the heatsink), but my thought was that when there was energy from sudden movement it would allow the motherboard tray to disipate some of that energy directly without the energy first having to transfer through the motherboard into the motherboard stand-offs. Probably overkill.
 
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