How much bend in the motherboard is normal?

[rickten]

I'm upgrading my Athlon 1700+ and noticed something

Gigabyte GAP35 DS3L
C2D E4500

I am using the stock heatsink. Have no plans to overclock. I cleaned the thermal pad off the stock heatsink and applied a line of artic silver 5.

I followed the instructions to install the heatsink and it bent the motherboard enough that I'm a little worried. I know some bend is normal but the board seems to bulge out right below the cpu.

Anyone else have a lot of bulge/bend in the motherboard?

 

[BillParrish]

Its called preload and is designed into the heatsink.

You can find it described and specified in this document:
http://www.intel.com/design/processor/designex/317804.htm


The reference design uses a high clip stiffness that resists local board curvature under
the heatsink, and minimizes, in particular, upward board deflection (Figure 20). In
addition, a moderate preload provides initial downward deflection.

The spec calls for 17lbs min - 40ish lbs max so that "initial downward deflection" of the board at the CPU area can look very alarming (curves the entire board like a potato chip ! ) until the motherboard is screwed down into the case.

LOL I known this because the first time I ever used the stock Intel 775 "push pin" heatsink I noticed the same thing, freaked out, and looked it up. One nasty side effect you do not have ( I think ) on that board, is the curvature is reduced when you screw it down but not completely and fancy heatsinks/heatpipes do not touch the devices under them because the boards downward curvature pulls them away from the bottom of the sink.