CPU Cooler mounting pressure

[Ills]

Hello good people!

 

So I recently upgraded my system which went fine. One question still irks me though.

When installing the cpu cooler I didn't really have any reference in regards of how light the screws had to be tightened. I looked at a youtube review where the guy also installed it, and he said "all the way down".

When it came time to screw it down however, "all the way down" was quite far from where I started to get resistance. I could see the brackets (on the cooler) starting to slightly bend as I went further down. Didn't go "all the way" but pretty close.

 

But how much is too much? I realize the brackets will have relived some of that pressure by simply bending, and other threads have said the screws will simply start to spin when going too high on the AM4 backplate. I've had no issues with thermals either, it all looks fine? But could this damage the board or the cpu in the long term? E.g. when stuff gets hot?

 

Should I remount it with less pressure, or just say "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

 

CPU                - Ryzen 5 3600

Motherboard   - MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX

Cooler             - ARCTIC Freezer 34 eSports DUO

 

- Cheers :)

[Fasauceome]

Coolers are designed to have a very constant resistance in the screws until you bottom out, where it'll go from requiring effort being very difficult. If you applied very consistent force until it has resistance, you did it right. 

[Ills]

I made sure to tighten in a cross pattern while mounting, cycling after each turn, so pressure should not be tilted. Turning the screws didn't get hard towards the end, but like I mentioned, I could see the coolerbraket slightly bending due the pressure.

 

I realize this is partly by design as to not crack stuff, and I can see the AM4 backplate is flushed against the motherboard to offer support for the pcb. Just wanted to make sure I wouldn't end up with a system failing to post after a month

[Constantin]

26 minutes ago, Ills said:

But could this damage the board or the cpu in the long term?

It probably can, they don't need to much pressure 

[teerhand]

Hey, i hope you reinstalled you arctic e34, because i honestly think their am4 mounting is a terrible design flaw, which can very well kill you cpu in the process.

 

for comparison, this is the only mounting bracket i have encountered that even allows for the bracket to bend when tightened.

 

good coolers you just screw in, till you are out of thread and thats it (noctua, thermalright, all i have seen work this way, heck even the stock cooler from amd)

 

i know this is an old post, but it appears as a top google result, so i thought i´d leave this here

[DrPoopie]

On 7/25/2020 at 12:15 PM, teerhand said:

Hey, i hope you reinstalled you arctic e34, because i honestly think their am4 mounting is a terrible design flaw, which can very well kill you cpu in the process.

 

for comparison, this is the only mounting bracket i have encountered that even allows for the bracket to bend when tightened.

 

good coolers you just screw in, till you are out of thread and thats it (noctua, thermalright, all i have seen work this way, heck even the stock cooler from amd)

 

i know this is an old post, but it appears as a top google result, so i thought i´d leave this here

Sorry for the late question, but I just built my first pc today and used Artic Freezer 34 Esports DUO and I had the same problem with brackets bending. I used MSI WDH PRO WiFi and I left the MSI backplate on, I didn’t feel too much resistance when tightening the cpu cooler but the brackets definitely bent. I used X pattern so equal force on all sides.

Should I undo them a little so the cooler don’t press as much against the CPU? Or is it ok?

 

My temps are great. And everything else seems to be normal, I’m just concerned for how long after reading this.