Mounting HSFs etc. without removing board? (Why openings in the back of cases?)

[flexy]

When I read some case reviews, people value it positively when a case has a large opening in the back for access to the HSF backplate and screws. Almost any new case has such an opening in the back now.

However I don't see the sense of this, UNLESS for possibly checking and tightening of screws should they have come lose.

In some reviews it reads as if those openings in the backsides are great "to mount HSFs without the need to remove the motherboard" - but I have never seen nor would recommend to mount a large HSF with the board still in the case and the system upright. (Maybe for light AiO cooler systems which are simply screwed on??)

Let's say you remount a rather heavy air cooler, say for applying new thermal paste or replacing the cooler....do you leave the board IN the case...or why do you care about those openings in the back?

 

[Itchrelief]

I leave the board in the case when I remount, but then I don't really use large, top-of-the-line air coolers. CM 212+ or approximately in that range. I also don't overclock nor obsess too much about temps anymore, as long as they aren't obscene.

I find the opening useful exactly because I am not an expert system builder nor an overclocker. I build a system about every 4-ish years, maybe remount every 1-2 years in between unless something messes up. That gives me a lot of time to get out of practice (maybe was never in practice to begin with), so I do things like forget to mount the backplate before assembling almost all of the components, then find that "Whoops, I need to install the CPU cooler but I didn't put on the backplate..." Opening in the back of the case allows me to fix my oops, albeit a bit more awkwardly and taking longer than if I'd put it on before putting the MB in to begin with.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Nobody ever officially recommends installing the cooler with the motherboard screwed into the case's ATX mobo-pan. (I call it a "pan" -- which is usually equipped with 1/4" brass standoffs.)

The hole in the pan never seems to match up well for complete access to all four mounting holes. That being said, I did actually do it once, but I had to manipulate the backplate assembly into place with a small ruler, pencil, etc. It is so much [g**d***) tedium, it's not worth the effort.

Once the mounting hardware has been installed, though, a lot of these tower heatpipe coolers can be easily removed with the (likely) two or four mounting screws from the top, exposed side of the board -- the board "in place" and secured to the pan. For some of these coolers, the bracket will remain secured to the motherboard for easy re-mounting. For others, this may mean that the bracket on the underside of the board will drop to the pan underneath. In that case (no pun), you'd pay a lot of attention to keeping it aligned, and you'd likely get stuck in the detour of fiddling with narrow tools as I mentioned.

FOOTNOTE: The ubiquitous square hole in the pan under the processor seems more intended for ventilation than for access. But here is the simple fact of the matter. Any manufacturer of cases can only build to an ATX spec for a slew of different motherboards, and each make and model of motherboard places the processor socket differently on the ATX motherboard. Otherwise, each motherboard maker would need to consider the design of myriad cases. Or -- there would be some unwieldy standard for motherboard design and case design as well.

So, unless your cooler is similar to the 212 EVO or my EVGA ACX cooler and you need to remove and then remount the cooler -- Embrace the tedium -- pull the wires from their plugs and remove the motherboard.

 

[xthetenth]

A good number of the bigger heatsinks let you install the backplate and some mounting brackets on the front, which lets you get the assembly nicely into place without any real big weights or overly fiddly work keeping things steady being involved until the mounting of the heatsink itself, which only requires access to the front of the motherboard.

I actually did exactly this on my NH-D15, and then only after the motherboard was in the case did I secure the bracket, and then once that was in the right place I screwed the heatsink itself in. When installing the heatsink, I did have the case on its side in my lap, though, having it upright would be crazy because you want gravity to help keep the thing sitting nicely on the TIM and to help with seating the screws.

I personally would much rather handle my case while mounting the heatsink proper, and would definitely prefer to not try to line up the motherboard so it goes nicely into the IO shield with a kilo or so of metal hanging off it thank you very much.

 

[PG]

If you do a decent amount of tinkering and testing then the cut out could be a big help. It saves you from disconnecting everything just to swap a cpu and heatsink.

For example I don't mind using a stock Intel heatsink, but I don't trust the pushpins unless I can visually see that they are OK. Once in a great while I have heard the click but visually could see that the black center pin was not all the way in and up to the same level as the outer white pieces on the pushpins.
In the case, out of the case, it doesn't really matter as long as I can see what I'm doing.