Tightening Noctua NH-D15 Thumb Screws

[GregD7]

I am tightening the thumb screws for the Noctua NH-D15 and I do not know how tight I should be tightening these screws. The manual says "Gently tighten the screws until they stop, but do not use excessive force (max torque 0.6 Nm)". At first I snugged them up, but when I mounted the heatsink and screwed in the spring loaded screws, the spring loaded screws actually did stop, so I thought the thumb screws were supposed to stop too. I took off the heatsink and started retightening the thumbscrews with a screwdriver. After a while of turning the screws the resistance got pretty high and I was afraid to tighten the screws any more so I backed the screws off to snug tight. Are these thumb screws supposed to stop? Has anyone tightened these screws until they actually stopped?

[OhioYJ]

Those thumb screws will stop too. Just don't tighten them excessively like the manaul states. Just take them all the way down. They will however bottom out. 

[GregD7]

I tightened the crap out of those screws and they weren't bottoming out, I'm afraid to break the motherboard. If they are supposed to bottom out that would be good because I am worried I might have damaged the motherboard from over tightening the thumb screws. So these thumb screws are definitely NOT supposed to be snug tight?

[Blue4130]

19 minutes ago, GregD7 said:

I tightened the crap out of those screws and they weren't bottoming out, I'm afraid to break the motherboard. If they are supposed to bottom out that would be good because I am worried I might have damaged the motherboard from over tightening the thumb screws. So these thumb screws are definitely NOT supposed to be snug tight?

It says how tight they should be... 0.6Nm. Also says "do not use excessive force"

 

Spin them until they touch the plate, then give it a half turn or so. Don't use a screw drive, you loose all feeling of how tight you are going.

[GregD7]

Is it possible I damaged the motherboard by over tightening them earlier?

[Blue4130]

37 minutes ago, GregD7 said:

Is it possible I damaged the motherboard by over tightening them earlier?

I mean, it's possible, but highly unlikely. You'd need to be a gorilla and really go ham on it. Is it working now? If so, don't worry about it. Computers are not nearly as delicate as people seem to think.

[GregD7]

35 minutes ago, Blue4130 said:

I mean, it's possible, but highly unlikely. You'd need to be a gorilla and really go ham on it. Is it working now? If so, don't worry about it. Computers are not nearly as delicate as people seem to think.

I have not booted it up yet. I inspected the board for cracks and found none. I supposed I am most worried about the cpu socket getting bent or the cpu getting damaged. Does the Noctua base plate prevent damage to the motherboard from over tightening?

 

Oh and so you know, with the thumb screws, I went as tight as I could go with my fingers and then went 1/4 turn with a screw driver for good measure.