Help needed with installing a heatsink

[irobot10]

I am in the middle of my first build and stuck at installing the heatsink on CPU.
1) Motherboard: ASUS M2N32-SLI-DLX-Wireless;
2) Case: Cooler Master CM-690;
3) Processor: Athlon 64 X2 5600+;
4) Heatsink: Zerotherm BTF90

1) Does it matter which direction the fan should point? Possible directions are either upward or downward. BTF90 has a side mounted fan vs top mounted fan on stock AMD heatsink. So stock AMD fan points sideways in installed position which I think is correct because there are no other parts in front of it and the case fan on side panel will take the hot air out. In case of BTF90, if I point the fan upward, it will blow hot air from CPU right on the RAM modules and if I point it downward, then there is the VGA card & other PCI cards right in front of it.

2) How much force is "appropriate" trying to snap this thing in place? Stock AMD h/s did not need any force and fit right in. But BTF90 does not click or snap and it is still loose even after I am max'ed out of force. (well I am not max'ed out but I dont want to break the motherboard...)

Please help. The leaflet that came with BTF90 is really insufficient for a new-bie such as myself. There are many posts on newegg praising about easy installation of this heatsink and I think I must be doing something very wrong by not getting it.

Thanks for your help!

 

[Psymon]

Ensure that everything is properly mounted before you apply any force. You could break the motherboard if it's not. If it is, crank it up slowly until it's secure. There's no reason to give it any more than what it needs to be fully secure. I can't tell you what is right or wrong on this, it's more of a feeling. I use a Tuniq Tower 120 and I can say that I was more worried about breaking the motherboard setting this beast on top rather than securing it

As for the fan direction, blow it out of the case (towards the back). Unless you have a blow-hole right above it (like an Antec 900) then you point it up.

I don't believe anyone would point it down simply because there's no where for it to go.

 

[irobot10]

Originally posted by: Psymon
Ensure that everything is properly mounted before you apply any force. You could break the motherboard if it's not. If it is, crank it up slowly until it's secure. There's no reason to give it any more than what it needs to be fully secure. I can't tell you what is right or wrong on this, it's more of a feeling. I use a Tuniq Tower 120 and I can say that I was more worried about breaking the motherboard setting this beast on top rather than securing it

As for the fan direction, blow it out of the case (towards the back). Unless you have a blow-hole right above it (like an Antec 900) then you point it up.

I don't believe anyone would point it down simply because there's no where for it to go.

Thanks Psymon...
Pointing the cpu fan towards rear of the case was my obvious starting-point. But the large butterfly fins of BTF90 obstruct with some kind of copper heat transfer mechanism of the motherboard. So I can only point the fan up or down. I guess 'down' is out of options because I dont want to blow hot air on practically the rest of my system. I think "up" will be ok because eventhough RAM modules are in the wat, the fan is mounted quite tall and its hot air will pass from above the memory modules.

 

[Psymon]

I would have to agree and recommend with the upwards direction then. I don't know what video card you're using, but these days people do everything possible to keep them cooler, and blowing hot air from your processor onto the video card isn't the best step to ensuring the coolest temps possible.

You could also consider putting in a blowhole above later on which would help ensure that the heat from the processor is being pushed out of the case efficiently. You would lower your overall temps a lot.

Good luck and maybe another member with more experience on the subject could shed some light here.