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Question on CPU cooler tightness

O

OBIO

Retired SOH Admin
Okay...today I am finally able to work on putting together my new system. MOBO is in, CPU is in, heat sink and fan are in, power supply is in, RAM is in, doing some wiring now. Still have the graphics card to go in.

Now...I am not used to these new parts. I am used to CPU heat sinks that had spring steel retainers that held them in place. The one that came with the I7-950 has four push pin thingies at the corners. I followed the directions on installing it...I pressed one pin in until it clicked, then turned the knob, then did the opposite corner, then another corner and then the opposite corner from that. I checked the back of the MOBO and all four plastic pins are through the MOBO and the metal expansion pins are visible. BUT it seems like the heat sink is not pulled against the CPU tight enough. Is it supposed to have a spring retained feel to it or is it supposed to be clamped down tight as the old heat sinks? Before I fire this puppy up, I want to make sure the heat sink is installed right. If I blow the CPU, I will have a long long long stay in the dog house and will not be able to buy a new one until next tax season.

OBIO
 
OBIO said:
Now...I am not used to these new parts. I am used to CPU heat sinks that had spring steel retainers that held them in place. The one that came with the I7-950 has four push pin thingies at the corners. I followed the directions on installing it...I pressed one pin in until it clicked, then turned the knob, then did the opposite corner, then another corner and then the opposite corner from that. I checked the back of the MOBO and all four plastic pins are through the MOBO and the metal expansion pins are visible. BUT it seems like the heat sink is not pulled against the CPU tight enough. Is it supposed to have a spring retained feel to it or is it supposed to be clamped down tight as the old heat sinks? Before I fire this puppy up, I want to make sure the heat sink is installed right. If I blow the CPU, I will have a long long long stay in the dog house and will not be able to buy a new one until next tax season.
Click to expand...
Yes things have changed and not always for the better IMHO. The 'modern' CPU heatsinks are all as you describe and have been since the later P4's IIRC. All you can do is push and twist and if the pins 'click' then make a full quarter turn then they are seated correctly. The danger is if they don't 'click' first and then you make the turn and the pins appear to be locked but they are not through the MOBO and one or more legs are flopping free. From your description it sounds like you got them seated correctly.

Do you have one of the 'rubbery' thermal pads between the heatsink and the CPU as that can increase the 'bouncy' feel to the assembly? I've had mixed success with those, some worked fine while others allowed the CPU to get too hot and I ended up tearing the pad off and using good old thermal paste instead.
 
The thermal pad that came pre-applied to the heat sink looked like foam rubber....no like the tried and true thermal paste. I have a tube of thermal paste on hand..if I see that my CPU temps are running a bit high (not sure what is normal for the i7-950 processor though) I will pull the heat sink, clean off the stock compound and apply the thermal paste in its place.

The system is now fully together. Just need to hook in the monitor, give it some electricity and hope that it does not blow up when I fire it up.

Since this is a brand new build....should I install the drivers supplied with the MOBO first or Windows 7? Never built a system from pieces and parts before.

OBIO
 
There should be instructions in the motherboard manual. Mine had me install Windows first, just ignoring the "found new hardware" messages until Windows was finished with its installation.

My CPU cooler (Xigmatek) fit really tight on my CPU. Once it was locked down, there was no springiness or movement.
 
My heat sink is tight...just not as tight as the ones I am used to working with. All 4 pins are fully seated, the nobs are pressed down and turned. I'm sure it's fine...I'm just not used to working on anything other than dinosaur systems.

Will double check the MOBO instructions and see if I find anything about the procedure for installing drivers and OS.

OBIO
 
Install windows first, after that then install mobo drivers. <<<<<they need="" windows="" install="" to="" work="">needs OS to work

Looking forward to know the beast lives. And welcome to the 21st century:jump:

Joe</they>
 
The MONSTER that ate $1083 is alive and well. Running along nice and QUIET. Still have some updating to do. Still have a 1TB HD to install...then I can begin copying over my sim stuff and see just how well FS9 runs on an i7-950 with 6gig of fast RAM and a video card that is almost the size of the MOBO in my old system. WOW that thing is huge!

OH, I am on the MONSTER now! My very first post with a super duper modern system.

OBIO
 
Congrats!!!!!!

FS9 is gunna fly on this rig, it will be a whole new sim. But it wont last long.. :kilroy:
FSX will slowly take hold :wavey::wiggle: then its all over :mixedsmi:

Joe
 
FSX...yes I will fly it some as there are some freeware birds that I have been hankering to use, but FSX simply does not have enough freeware planes available to drag me away from FS9. Yeah, there are a bunch of tube liners, but I don't fly tube liners...I fly vintage GA, vintage Military mostly....heavy on the vintage GA. I have my 3 installs of FS9 packed to the gills with planes that I like flying, that are not available for FSX...and I won't spend hours and hours and hours porting FS9 planes over to FSX just to have them not work as well as they did in their native sim.

OBIO
 
Tim, my H-50 water cooler with in my new computer didn't feel as tight when installed as a regular P4 heatsink did. But it's working just fine too. Scares the hell out of ya doesn't it? LOL
 
I was so nervous putting this system together. I have done CPU swaps, MOBO swaps, memory changes, PSU changes....but knowing that if I screw up I could fry a thousand bucks worth of parts...and that my wife would have me hanging in the big Pine tree by some of my favorite parts if I did.....yeah, I was sweating when I went to fire this puppy up for the first time.

Actually, my first attempt to fire the system up nearly gave me a heart attack. I plugged the PC and the monitor into the new surge protector, went out for a smoke, drank a glass of water, then came back into the office and hit the power button. NOTHING! I looked into the case, checking everything again for the 100th time. Hit the power button again. NOTHING! Then I remembered that I had not flicked the switch on the surge protector. It fired up just fine then.

The only thing that I have found that is not right is the connection for the front/top mounted headphone and mic jack. They aren't working. Will double check the connection tomorrow to make sure I have it plugged into the right place with the right pluggie thing. The cord that runs from the headphone and mic jacks has two plugs on the end...one is marked AC'97 and the other is marked something something HD audio. I used the AC'97 end....will try the HD audio one.

The system is surprisingly quiet for having 5 large fans running in it. I can not even hear it unless I get real close and really LISTEN to it. My old system, which is 6 or 7 feet away, is really noisey.

Tim
 
That's the thing with fans 120mm or larger, they turn slower, but can move more air, and that allows them to run quietly. Those little 90mm or smaller fans have to run at extremely high speeds to move air.
 
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