Round Plastic Ring that Clips onto the Bottom of the Cold Plate - Do I Really Need It?

[Albylion]

I've been helping my step-dad build a PC.  (Well, I've been building it and assigning him minor tasks to struggle with so he can participate.)  It's a Threadripper 2990wx (for his photography) and a Thermaltake Water 3.0 Ultimate cooler.  The Threadripper PiB comes with its own TR4 bracket; but I got distracted and installed the cooler without the round bottom clip that goes under the copper cold plate and snaps into the bracket. 

 

The system POSTs so far (haven't set up his BenQ monitor [the one Linus showed on YouTube a few weeks ago] yet).  But what's the worst that could happen?  It seems the naked cold plate is nice and snug against the TIM (Arctic Silver 5).  I don't foresee it sliding around or anything, but . . . should I take off the pump, reapply thermal paste, and reseat?

[W-L]

12 minutes ago, Albylion said:

I've been helping my step-dad build a PC.  (Well, I've been building it and assigning him minor tasks to struggle with so he can participate.)  It's a Threadripper 2990wx (for his photography) and a Thermaltake Water 3.0 Ultimate cooler.  The Threadripper PiB comes with its own TR4 bracket; but I got distracted and installed the cooler without the round bottom clip that goes under the copper cold plate and snaps into the bracket. 

 

The system POSTs so far (haven't set up his BenQ monitor [the one Linus showed on YouTube a few weeks ago] yet).  But what's the worst that could happen?  It seems the naked cold plate is nice and snug against the TIM (Arctic Silver 5).  I don't foresee it sliding around or anything, but . . . should I take off the pump, reapply thermal paste, and reseat?

That is just a retention ring for the mounting TR4 bracket, not absolutely necessary as long as the mounting bracket is properly seated into place. 

https://www.thermaltake.com/db/support/usermanual/_734e3ca1585146498ffa0e15909cb42b.pdf

[Albylion]

That's what I figured.  I reckon it's not a vital necessity because the bracket is already held to the cold plate with the little teeth around the circumference, and the whole pump is held in place with the four screws around the perimeter of the bracket.  In fact, I would gess you could make a good case for getting better cooling without the round retention ring.