How tight is too tight?

[Whizzard9992]

Just to clarify, I'm talking about CPU coolers 😉

I just installed new RAM to discover that two of my four DIMM slots are bad 🙁 Right off the bat I'm thinking bent CPU pins, my fan is too tight, or bad mobo.

This got me to thinking, how tight is too tight?


I have a coolermaster hyper 212 for an i7-870. When installing, I turned each screw 1/2 turn to ensure that the load was evenly distributed, and repeated this until it was just tight enough that the cooler didn't rotate when I grabbed it (If I try, it doesn't take much effort to rotate it accidentally, as I did while installing the RAM. It's just tight enough that it doesn't do it easily).

Any thoughts on how to know when a cooler is "too tight"? Any recommendations for finding out if I squished some traces? I'm dreading the 4 hours I'm going to have to spend excavating my motherboard from the case, then removing the CPU, inspecting the pins, reinstalling, reapplying paste, etc etc...

TIA

 

[BD231]

Back when CPU cores were without heatplates you might of had cause for concern, now, not so much. Besides, if even just one of those pins isn't making contact your computer wouldn't boot in the first place.

Bad mobo, return it.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

Normally the cooler is only on too tight if you strip the screws off the threads...

Intel allow 40-70lbs force and overclockers have been known to use over 100lbs.

The LGA socket of the i7 should be easy enough to check - the pins should be pointing in a uniform direction

Have you tried testing the sticks of RAM individually - just to confirm it isn't bad sticks

(boot with one stick in a "good" slot, swap the stick and reboot, repeat until done. For a more serious test run a few loops of Memtest86

 

[aigomorla]

if u see your board doing this after you mounted the sink..

then its too tight:

lol..

if were talking about a 1366, there is no too tight.
id like to see someone bend that rear backplate...

You'd have to be spiteful in breaking the board to do it.

 

[86waterpumper]

there is no "too tight" with a 212. The proper method is to tighten the screws in until they stop

 

[VirtualLarry]

I noticed with my Tuniq 120 that if I tightened it too tight, it wouldn't lie flat and square on the CPU. So there was a limit to how tight I could get it. (Spring-loaded screws). So it was basically dependent on the springs, how tight it got. Still got my Q6600 to 3.6, but OCCT:linpack temps hit the high 80Cs.

 

[Whizzard9992]

lol @ aigomorla

Thanks for all the great replies.

Before I drop another $200 on this box I'm going to spend a couple of hours and inspect the pins. I've run memtest on the original sticks of RAM a few times thanks to a problem I'm having with my GTX 480 (http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=187401).

When I installed the new RAM and the system crashed, the first thing I did was run MemTest. Multiple errors. I put the new RAM into the slots where the old RAM was and took the old RAM out: I just wanted to make sure the new RAM wasn't bad. Memtest ran fine 🙁 In fact I'm using the new RAM now.

Given that I'm also having problems with my GTX 480 (but not my GTS 8800 😕) I'm leaning towards a bad mobo. I really don't want to be without my rig for 4 weeks, but I don't want to spend another $200 either.

 

[BD231]

Some companies will ship you a board if you provide a credit card they can put a hold on for a specific dollar amount. Once you ship the defective board back they'll withdraw the hold, maybe they might have this option available to you?

Been through it myself and I'd definitely take the four weeks of no nice rig over years spent ripping your hair out over a problematic motherboard.

I have a GTX 460 as well and I'm kicking myself for not going ATI, lesson learned.