Help installing Core i7!

[infowarrior45]

Hi everybody,

I was all excited putting together my PC. I have the EVGA x58 SLI motherboard and the Core i7 920 processor. I put the chip into the socket, and it's all lined up and appears to be flush.

When I close the load plate, and I start pushing down on the socket lever, I start getting a little bit of resistance when the socket lever is at a right angle. When I get the socket lever to about 45 degree angle, I just really don't like the amount of pressure I am putting on it....DEFINITELY don't want to damage the socket area on the mobo, as I guess that will void my warranty. I don't want to damage the processor either. I talked to EVGA support, and they told me to bring it to a PC builder and have him put it in. I really don't have the money for that right now...I already overspent my pc budget.

There is more pressure required to put that lever down when the i7 is in there than when the little socket protector plate is in there. When the little protector plate is in there I don't really have to apply much pressure on the socket lever until I am hooking it down. Maybe this is normal??

As far as the amount of pressure...it's something I can definitely do with one finger, just more than I was expecting

Suggestions please! I can send pics, and maybe videos if needed. Please keep in mind that this is my first build...I have never installed a processor before.


Thanks! I really appreciate it.

 

[Uberbob102000]

Yea, as long as your sure you have in lined up (notches on CPU with the correct area on the socket) then you should be good to go. It takes a surprising amount of force to push that little lever down. I've been building for a while and I felt the need to double check my work because it took so much pressure.

 

[PC_User]

Yea, as long as your sure you have in lined up (notches on CPU with the correct area on the socket) then you should be good to go. It takes a surprising amount of force to push that little lever down. I've been building for a while and I felt the need to double check my work because it took so much pressure.

That's correct. It does take a bit of force. Double-check to make sure the little triangle is lined up and the notches are where they are supposed to be. There's only one way the CPU can fit. After that, make sure the lever hooks onto the CPU cover and continue pushing down until the level is in its latch.

 

[exe163]

It's pretty hard to mess up. i too just moved to an i7 chip coming from AMD x2. I had the same problem as you do when I first put it in. It does take a lot of pressure to lock it in place compares to the AMD way, but also means it won't fall out even when you drop the mobo. Once I tries to remove the heatsink from my 4400 x2, I ended up pulling the CPU out with it... scary...

 

[GoldenTiger]

As others said, it does take a medium amount of force... WAY more than you'd expect, and you'll likely hear what sounds like crunching as you do so. Don't worry about it so long as the chip is aligned properly with the small triangle . My lever actually was bending slightly from the tension but was fine, on an Asus P6T (vanilla).

 

[Uberbob102000]

Congrats on the i7 system and the first build!
I totally forgot the golden triangle, I'm feeling quite stupid at the moment.

 

[infowarrior45]

Thanks guys...that worked great. Yeah, it did make a crunching sound...glad you mentioned that...would have kind of scared me otherwise. My system is up and running...just waiting for my antivirus so I can hook it up to the internet. Still have to configure some things too. I will post up some pics when I get a chance.