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Ultra-120 Mounting question

T

Taco

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Nov 2, 2001
Messages
1,465
So I'm trying to mount this on an Asus P6X58D. When I screw in the backplate it doesn't tighten flush to the back of the board. There is still some space and it rattles some.

I suck at this part of the system build, but I'd imagine that bracket needs to be tight to mount the heat sink properly. Am I mistaken? I'm beginning to worry this mobo doesn't work with the heat sink.
 
look and see if theres a spacer or anything.. or a pad thats suppose to go between the back plate and the back of the heatsink.. i know a few heatsinks ive bought over the years have come with different bad sizes.. some are thin and some are really thick.. just idea's since i havent looked at the bolt through mounting for that heatsink in a long time..
 
have you screwed it in all the way?

The backplate can be loose until all the screws are tightened down
 
I was thinking there may be a spacer or something as well, but I couldn't find anything. I wish Thermalright had some sort of support, they don't as far as I can see.

Yes. It's screwed in.

This is a pretty frustrating thing to hold my build back.
 
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So Thermalright wrote back and said this:
The mounting will seem loose but will not move around unless forced. It should be tight against the CPU but can still be slightly twisted if forced.
Click to expand...

Which still doesn't make sense to me. I have this in a tower, is that not possible? Otherwise I would think with it sideways it will lean forward and create a gap.

Even if it's not supposed to work on a tower, then you are relying on the weight of the heatsink to keep it flush to the CPU.

Starting to irritate me. I know a lot of guys here have installed this heat sink, is there any validity to that answer I got?
 
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Well their answer if correct IF all the other stuff in installed correctly. They are saying that if installed correctly the main heatsink should be fairly tight against the cpu but if you grab it and twist with a good amount of force you can get it to move a little. This is correct.

Trouble is, I think from what you are saying, something is horribly wrong with the way you are putting on the backplate, parts missing or something. That backplate should snug up against the back of the board tightly.

Are there large "mountains" of solder where the backplate goes preventing it from laying flat against the back side of the board ?

Are you putting it on so that the raised part of the screw holes on the backplate goes into the holes in the motherboard ?

Tough to figure out what is going on. Very wise to post for help. Wish I could help more. Once you get everything correct the heatsink should firmly sit against the cpu, if there is any flopping around or you can "rock" the heatsink with mild finger presure, something is still wrong.
 
Looks like you understand my predicament spot on, so that makes you the first :D.

Almost positive it is flush against the back of the board(no solder), but I'll double check it tonight. Raised part is going through the holes, and screws are being tightened as much as possible.

I mean there should just be the backplate (and I only have 1 that aligns with the board), two brackets on the top that you screw to the backplate, then the mounting bracket/HSF that goes into that. That's it right?

One thing I did notice is the backplates that were designed for other boards have some sort of plastic padding on it. The plate for my board has none, all metal.
 
Yes, the plastic padding was probably an adhesive. The backplate from the H50 had one it, was difficult to take off so i just left it on for my cpu block :D

It might help you keep it snug, but I'm not sure.
 
My 120 had that plastic padding on the 775 backplate but not on the 1366.

What revision is your kit? Rev. A, B, or C?

I have the 1366 plate in front of me. Does yours have white spacers/washers on the bolt holes?
 
I have not installed that HS as I cannot/will not ship systems with such large HS attached)so I am still kinda just guessing here at what parts should have come with it, I did look at thermalrights install and it appears the backplate is now plastic so no insulation pad is needed. If I am incorrect that may be part of the problem, missing pad, or not. But something needs to be taking up room/slack so the screws do not bottom out before the assembly gets tight.

For reference
Motherboard picts : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Image... X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Heatsink Info: http://www.thermalright.com/new_a_page/product_page/cpu/u120ex/product_cpu_cooler_u120ex_revc.html

OK (again just visualizing it) the only thing that can make the entire assembly "loose" is the screw length too long preventing the entire assembly from clamping down as it should. I dont know why that is happening, I cannot be interference with any of the heatpipe parts on the board you would have the opposite problem, too tight or could not get scews in. I wonder if due to the recent trouble with socket pin burn ASUS changed socket carriers and the new one is a lower profile than stock. This seems highly unlikely as I am postive there is a standard height speced by Intel or most heatsinks including the factory stock push pin ones would also be loose or not clamp as tightly as needed. Just thinking out loud here as I type....

I cant figure out what is going on, it all seems simple enough, I bet you are cursing a blue streak. If solder on the backside was prevent the plate from seating it would still pull down tight, even tighter than intended , so thats not it.

Really weird.

Not having the stuff in front of me all I can suggest is to make a spacer out of some kind of plastic to take up some of the "slop" to get it to tighten down. Find a cheap picture frame that uses plastic instead of glass and trace out the backplate (roughly) and cut it out with a fine tooth hacksaw blade or if there is some plastic something laying around you can destroy to get a piece of sheet plastic you might could cut it out with good sissors if its thin enough. I wanted to say use cardboard of some kind like a ceral box cut up to make a spacer but it will compress over time resulting in the HS loosening up. Anyway you get the idea.

This is really weird, please post back if you figure out what is really going on. I am sure you are the first to post about this HS and board combo and this issue, bet you will not be the last.

Good luck .
 
Yeah, I don't know. It's hard for me to really troubleshoot this thing without other reference parts to compare to. It's a revision C, no spacers or washers. It really is like the screws are too long, at first I thought I had the wrong ones. But the only others are spring loaded for the actual HS mount.

I bought it through heatsink factory, who got me a name and number for someone at Thermalright(points for post sales responsiveness). Called Thermalright, who said they'd see what they can do, but the contact I was given is on vacation until Monday.

Anyways, I got the system up on stock cooling since I have no idea when this will be resolved and I have no PC. So I'll just wait on the overclocking.
 
BillParrish said:
I am still kinda just guessing here at what parts should have come with it, I did look at thermalrights install and it appears the backplate is now plastic so no insulation pad is needed. If I am incorrect that may be part of the problem, missing pad, or not.
Click to expand...

I have the Ultra-120 rev. A and rev. C and both 1366 backplates were metal.

However, there is complete redesign of the mounting hardware between A and C

http://www.thermalright.com/new_a_page/product_page/cpu/u120ex/product_cpu_cooler_u120ex_reva.html

http://www.thermalright.com/new_a_page/product_page/cpu/u120ex/product_cpu_cooler_u120ex_revc.html

Personally, I had nothing but troubles with the revision C design and disliked it. The Revision C design was incompatible with my motherboard because the tabs on the sides of the two bars stick out into components. In the revision C design, there is no pressure exerted on the backplate. The backplate is just lightly screwed in. All the pressure goes into two spring loaded screws that go into the sides of two winged bars that screw in normally to the backplate. The revision A design had a balanced 4 spring mounted screw set that exerted pressure directly against the backplate in an X pattern, sandwiching the CPU/mobo between the backplate and the heatsink. In Rev. C it just hangs there.

Here is my MS Paint rendition :)
mounting.jpg


On the revision A design, the springs hold the x-clamp tight against the backplate. On revision C, there are no spring loaded screws on the backplate at all. It's just two bars and the heatsink hangs off the two bars that go across the front.
 
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Sign that masterpiece! :).

Yeah, that pretty much shows what I'm dealing with. The 2 bars are not tight to the mother board, so if the heat sink is attached to nothing but those bars(which it will be), it will hang forward.
 
Hello Taco,

I'm having the exact same problem as you are - I install the backplate, tighten down the screws on the two bars and I can grab the bars and push and pull the backplate back and forth which feels very wrong.

Did you manage to pull it off? The only thing I can think of is to go to Lowe's and find some washers for the backplate to make it fit snugly to the mobo...

I noticed you stopped posting after the 11th so figuring you sorted it out...

Thanks!
 
Thermalright has assured and promised me that once I mount the heat sink itself that the spring loaded scews will tighten it. They said the looseness is as designed to accommodate mobos of different widths. I haven't had a chance to do it yet, but I figure I'm just going to bite the bullet and move forward.

I agree with Flair, the whole mounting system is just bizarre.
 
Taco said:
Thermalright has assured and promised me that once I mount the heat sink itself that the spring loaded scews will tighten it. They said the looseness is as designed to accommodate mobos of different widths. I haven't had a chance to do it yet, but I figure I'm just going to bite the bullet and move forward.

I agree with Flair, the whole mounting system is just bizarre.
Click to expand...

I'm confident you'll find that it will work fine. As you torque the heat sink to the mounting mechanism the spring screws will pull the back-plate securely to the back of the MOBO. Once the heat sink has solid contact with the proc it will have no where else to go, so the only moving part left will be the back plate which as you torque will get pulled into the mobo. You can also use that as a guage to make sure you're not over-tightening the heat sink to much, once the back plate is snug against the mobo - you're done!

If you're still not confident, you can do what I did and get some nylon washers from Lowe's or Home Depot - they worked very well also.

The mounting system is different and unsettling at first, but once you become comfortable with how it's intended to work you'll feel better about it. Just think in terms of how the force is applied to the back plate assembly and the mounting bracket assembly.
 
Assuming I'll notice the difference once the screws are in, I'm not going to worry about it. I guess I should have just mounted the entire thing, I just didn't want to have to take the entire mobo out if it didn't work. Sought confirmation instead.
 
I'm sure the mounting system will work, but the rev. C system definitely did not fit on my board at all because the brackets on the side had flared bits where the screws go that interferred with motherboard components.
 
All on tight. Really don't like the design, but once it's on it's rock solid. Finally can push the CPU some.
 
I had the same with the rev c bracket on my p6t dlx v2, felt loose on initial installation of the bracket assembly, however once i mounted the cooler with the spring loaded screws it all tightened up very nicely, a vast improvement over the previous x clamp style bracket.
 
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