Just finished my new build last night, all went well, expect as you may have guessed the CPU cooler. Firstly, attaching the fan to the cooler, via its retaining wires was problematic, as the instructions indicated to attach the wire to rear of the fan. After some swearing I looked at the box picture, and guess what?, the wires were attached to the front of the fan!, I was starting to have a few concerns! The cooler itself is well built and has a really flat base, it runs pretty quietly to boot, so why am I about to get rid of it? Do the words push pins, mean anything to you, well if they don't please allow me to enlighten you. They are a form of mounting coolers to the motherboard, as used in Intel's stock coolers. They might be OK, for a small, low profile stock cooler, but for a large and heavy beast such as the Kama Angle, they inspire no confidence that they will provide a tight, stable fit. To top it off, the cooler is so large that in my Antec 300 case, you have to install the cooler before installing the motherboard, as unless you have tiny hands there is no way to push the pins down, once the MB is is the case, even then it can be tricky. For £30, Kama should not have such cheap asses and provided a bolt through kit. For AMD sockets and Intel 478, the Kama does not use push pins, so I can maybe recommend the cooler for those CPUs. The question is should I keep faith in the Kama and stump up an extra £10 for a secure mounting kit?
i feel your pain mate, i have a freezer 7 pro not only does this ensure a full 6c difference between the cores at the top and bottom of the cpu (the heatsink tilts because of its weight), its also a complete ballache to get on, and to tell whether its on or not. seriously considering investing in a TRUE
Cheers dude. It sucks, I'm going to ask, if Scan will accept it back, I've only had it 2 days, lets see. It's a crying shame, as the cooler is well built, quiet and you can mount the fan(s) in multiple positions for best airflow. It's like a team of crack engineers designed the cooler, had too much Saki to celebrate the near completion of the project, couldn't come into work the next day and left the mounting to be designed by the boss's pet monkey Bit-Tech recommendations are normally sound, they admit that the Kama Angle was a CustomPC choice, I'd love to hear what they make of the LGA 775 mounting?
The push-pins on my OCZ Vendetta aren't too bad. However, I think the Vendetta is a fair bit smaller. If you're getting high temps, make sure the push-pins are clicked in properly. I know you probably think you've already done it, but I found one push-pin was an absolute b*****d to get it to click twice, holding it on properly, and I didn't realise something was up till I looked at my temps (when I thought the cooler was attached properly).
I am a fortunate tiny handed one but many friends have drafted me in to get those pushpins in. I don't see why they use them, for the stock cooler they're ok (that weighs 200g and is pretty small profile) but for everything else they're rubbish. I've got a freezer 7 pro and whilst I think it is fine for what it does (never had temps above 50*C ever in all ambient temps and at all loads) the pushpins do not inspire confidence. Once when carrying my case when I had the 1kg scythe infinity installed with pushpins it came out (well, the top two pins came out, bottom two stayed in, so it was 'hanging'). I ordered the freezer 7 pro the next day which is much lighter and doesn't require acrobatics to get the pushpins in, but still I would prefer a more secure method similar to the old socket A motherboard I had.
What do you expect with 1kg hanging off the pushpins? The OCZ I've got weighs only 410g, and thus I trust the pushpins to hold it.
I should say it is not pushipins per se, but more the unusual design of the Kama that makes reaching the pins, incredibly difficult.
You could be worse off, though. I seem to remember some other Scythe(?) coolers that screwed in from the back side of the mobo. Little less choice as to whether or not you'll remove the board.
Same problem with my freezer 7 pro. I ended up making a backplate out of Lexan and securing it with bolts using springs to set proper tension.
Again, the temp difference with the Freezer Pro is a problem for me, how ever, as you can pick up a 'bolt-thru kit' for less than 10 bob note, its not all bad. I'll be getting one the second i have the money spare then reseating the Freezer.
Forget the big block coolers and get yourself a Sexxxy Zalman http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Zalman-CNPS9900-LED-PWM-Tunnel-Flower-Cooler-1366-775-AM2plus-AM2 Copper is always sexxxy looking, and it mounts like a rock climber with no ropes. Unless you are trying for 4GHZ on air, this is a dreamy cooler.
i like my zerotherm nirvana even though i have changed a it a little. i took the crappy stock fan off the mount and used mounting tape to mount a scythe slipstream 120 on it. improves cooling a bunch and makes very little noise.
