Question AM4 Cooler Spacing

[Aikouka]

So, it has been quite a while since I built with AMD. In fact, if we ignore the server upgrade that I did recently, my last desktop AMD build was an Athlon 64 X2 4400+ back in 2005. (People think CPUs are expensive now... you don't want to see the invoice for that one!) Anyway, I already had to purchase a special AMD mounting kit to use a 4U compatible Intel Noctua cooler in my server when I upgraded it with AMD, and I never really thought much about it. Well, I decided to perform two upgrades recently. I switched out my aging i7-4770k with an R5-3600 and a Pentium G4560 with an R3 3200G. (I went with the R3 because all APU models are still using Zen+ anyway.) I planned on using a Noctua NH-D15 with the R5 and putting the R3 in my Streacom FC8 EVO. Both units listed compatibility with AM4, and I thought I was fine... until I went to actually mount the Noctua cooler to find out that AMD decided to space apart its mounting holes on Ryzen. Now, I was fortunate enough that I had an NH-AM4 cooler mounting kit lying around from my server upgrade and my server needed the opposite mounting brackets as my desktop. (Noctua will also send you one.) Unfortunately, I had to order an adapter for the Streacom -- that comes with all newer units -- and only one store sells it now. (Makes you cringe spending $14 shipping on a small adapter plate.)

All in all, this has probably been discussed before by others around when the change happened, but if you've been away from AMD for a while and have coolers lying around... do a little bit of homework into whether they'll actually work out of the box. I'd certainly prefer to see others not deal with the annoying frustrations of unexpected changes like I did!