Zalman 9500 placement (how tight?)

[EscaroN]

How tightly should the Zalman 9500 be attached to the motherboard brackets, I've screwed it in all the way, atleast as far as I can turn the screws yet if I apply force I can slide the heatsink, since it on a circular type mount you can only rotate it, not actually move it side to side, but I can rotate it a bit clockwise/counterclockwise, I was wondering if that's normal?

PS. The temps seem OK, atleast CoreTemp reads them as about 36-38C idle and they go up to about 42-44C load, I'm running my E6600 with a slight OC, 300x9=2700mhz (default voltage)

 

[indokyne]

that's plenty tight. a little rotational play is expected from the 9500-type mount. once your thermal paste solidifies (if you're using as5), then you won't be able to move as easily.
and your temps look fine too.

 

[NoxTek]

That's totally normal.

I would try not to move it around a whole lot. A few times is ok and even desirable just after mounting, but if you do it after the curing process it could be detrimental to the thermal bond.

 

[OleSch00l]

I think that's acceptable. The side-to-side movement freaked me out a bit also when I first installed it, but a little movement was actually cool because it allowed me to position the cooler just right! I idle between 30 and 32C and 40-42 under load.

 

[bmx]

yea, that seems right to me too. i got a 9500, and it can wiggle a little side to side, but it's still on there tight. my temps are about 30 idle and 44 load. I'm also OC'ed to 3.2ghz with 1.475 vcore

 

[kill4killin]

As long as your temps are staying under a reasonable level (Im not sure what that is for the new conroe chips but yours sounds outstanding compaired to the old intels) its most likely perfectly fine.