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[tidy]

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[lehtv]

What do you mean by 'spring'?

Have you asked Thermalright?

 

[tidy]

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[T_Yamamoto]

For example:

Usually there is some kind of tension system with springs or spring steel tabs, to allow the sink some leeway to settle squarely on the CPU.

Its to hold the cooler in place without putting so much tension on the screw and screw hole.

 

[tidy]

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[Cerb]

What provides the 'spring' in this mounting system? Is it just the flexibility of the bracket?

Yes. The top-side plates provide the tension. They actually make too brackets, these days, it looks like. The add-on one with a screw in the middle, and the included one like pictured. Their mounts haven't used springs for awhile now.

With a cooler like the Macho, I'd want to make a point of using either desktop-style case, or case with a support bracket, regardless of how it mounts to the CPU, though. That's a great deal of possible torquing.

 

[24601]

Thermalright's is made with tolerances accurate enough to not require spring action without being loose or too tight.

The reason spring is not used is because Intel's IHS requires large pressure to make good contact since it is a concave structure. It's been this way since at least the Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme back in the day.

The springs in the Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme were technically pointless since you are supposed to tighten it all the way down anyways.