He should have checked the Corsair forums and determined what version he got of the bracket. The N980 had a horrendous QA issue where first generation models of it actually bended the PCB due to the risers being too short.
Corsair spent like 3-4 months fixing it and eventually released a revision model with new risers. But depending where he bought his, he could have gotten the older fubar'd version.
Oh well, judging from his post and ability to upgrade his whole CPU/MoBo on a whim - this is a life lesson.
(Reminds me of when I first got into selling my used GPUs, I lost $500 to an international deal gone wrong. Haha.)
EDIT:
http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showpost.php?p=824461&postcount=689
Corsair Rep said:
The fix is a change to the dimensions of the standoffs used to mount the coolers; this prevents them from breaking, but also allows them to provide the correct amount of clamping pressure instead of warping the board. We'll be sending these to existing N980 members, and they're being repackaged and rolled into our N980 stock.
A lot of people (like me) we waiting for this bracket to release. It was scheduled for August, didn't release I believe until October possibly November, and it didn't work as advertised. Corsair issued a recall but a lot of people were stuck with units pass the 30 day return window. So I'd expect a few of the fubar'd older models floating around, some where.
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