Blogs Installing CPU Coolers: The good, The Bad and The Ugly

http://www.bit-tech.net/blog/2009/12/02/installing-cpu-coolers-the-good-the-bad/

 

Best mounting system in the world is the one on the swiftech GTZ and XT

 

...I like the push-pins...

 

Good ones : Thermalright mounting kits, Noctua mounting kits.

The bad ones :
Socket 755 pushpins on big coolers like Scythe Ninja. Dumb decision, very dumb

The very, very, very, very bad and a very, very, very, very ugly one :
Scythe Ninja 2 on AM2 - nightmare. It was a idiot, who designed this mounting system. It uses the standard bracket of AM2/AM3 socket, which is fine. But you have to press clamps on both sides of cooler at same time and get them locked to bracket while pushing the two clamps with your two hands, keeping it at place with the 3rd hand .

 

Corsair's H50 kit for LGA775 and LGA1366 was pretty good. similar design to TRUE, just with a smaller bulk to attach.

but their new combined LGA775/1156/1366 are crap, no more spring to make sure it's tight, feels cheap and about to break off

 

H50 kit was wonderful to fit, you didnt need 3 hands and a screwdriver with 2 right-angles in it.

 

My Scythe MUGEN-2 has been good to me, and although I tend to be overly careful with computer hardware, once I figured out how to get the backplate in place it was much easier than I expected to install. I think the default AMD "latch" style mounting system is pretty pants, to be honest - it's extremely unstable and the heatsink wiggles all over the place pretty easily, compared to a simple screw system, which is totally solid. I've never used a push-pin system so I can't judge it (I just ignored the stock Intel cooler on my current build), but it seems to be a compromise between ease of installation and stability.

 

I've got one of these: Titan Fenrir TTC-NK85TZ

Was a bit fiddly to install but does work well
Only real problem is that if i ever want to change it, it involves practically disassembling the entire PC...

As for the worst mounting method, it's got to be some of the Socket A and older types.
spring loaded bar that you have to force over some plastic tabs on the cpu socket.
One i once owned had a notch for a flathead screwdriver on one end of the bar that you had to push down with terrifying* force.

* ie: so much force that one slip and the screwdriver would go through the motherboard

 

I was just about to say, Skt A was the worst eva!

 

Noctua's mounting is the best I would say. A bit tedious to get it on, but once you have the backplate mounted, installing and removing the heatsink is so easy that the backplate doesn't need to be touched.

 

Absolutely. Also the strength and build quality of it gives you faith that the giant heatsink won't just rip from your motherboard.

 

H50 on 1156 was easier than I thought

But frakly that involved burning bits off it with a soldering iron to make it fit around my MSI superpipe

but its a dream...a real dream.....perhaps you need to consider if the effort is worthwhile - some kind of ratio bewteen worth and hair-pulling - H50 wins hands down

 

Heatkiller 3.0 for Socket 775 - what a dream.

 

If everything used screws with springs and a backplate, I would be very happy.

Pushpins piss me off, I always manage to break something..

 

Can't say I've used push pins yet. I haven't upgraded since Intel became worth buying again (ie post Pentium 4).

 

+1 for Noctua, mine went on like a dream. (Yes, getting the clips for the damn fans on was another matter altogether.)

 

Prolimatech Meghalem's Mounting system, while a bit tedious is effing awesome.

 

ozc vendetta
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cooling/2007/12/23/ocz_vendetta/1
, with push pins. the thing is smaller than most heatsinks, without giving up much cooling power. it was easy and fast.

 

Once the backplate is on and the mounting bars are in, the Noctua is rather easy to remove from the motherboard - useful if you feel like a change of CPU or need to re-do your TIM.

 

I found the push pins on the Intel stock cooler *really* hard to fit when I fist built my computer.
Moving on a bit I have no recollection of installing my Fenrir so it can't have been too bad!