I purchased this lovely creature a while back in preparation for building my new system and ran into something that made me a little nervous. I have an Athlon 64 3000+ on an Albatron K8x800 Pro II board and following the instructions I found that the board began to show some warping as I tightened down the HSF so I stopped and brainstormed. What I came up with was an additional plate and two holes in the motherboard tray.
I removed the nibs and marked on my longer screws with a black marker where the stopping point should be for tightening. Next, I took a one-eighth inch plate and put two holes in it that match the back plate for the motherboard. I put two identical holes in the motherboard tray. I prepped the processor with arctic silver 5, placed the 7000 CU as squarely as I could get it on the motherboard and then screwed it in lightly to the motherboard back plate so that it set gently flush to the back of the motherboard. After that I carefully mounted the motherboard in my case and finished screwing down until I was ready to thread into the back plate I made for the tray. After this I simply alternated tightening the screws until the black marks I made were flush with the surface of the motherboard and this made for a very firm fit and a motherboard that looks to be perfectly flat and running parallel with the tray.
While the screws do not touch the MB due to the way the back plate is made the HS is essentially grounded to the tray. That shouldn't cause any problems should it? I can still make modifications and while I am sure everything is still in good condition I don't want the warping as I am very concerned with possibly popping a solder joint somewhere or something. Nice thing about this if it works also is that the tray is supporting a good deal of the Zalman's weight in stead of the motherboard.
I removed the nibs and marked on my longer screws with a black marker where the stopping point should be for tightening. Next, I took a one-eighth inch plate and put two holes in it that match the back plate for the motherboard. I put two identical holes in the motherboard tray. I prepped the processor with arctic silver 5, placed the 7000 CU as squarely as I could get it on the motherboard and then screwed it in lightly to the motherboard back plate so that it set gently flush to the back of the motherboard. After that I carefully mounted the motherboard in my case and finished screwing down until I was ready to thread into the back plate I made for the tray. After this I simply alternated tightening the screws until the black marks I made were flush with the surface of the motherboard and this made for a very firm fit and a motherboard that looks to be perfectly flat and running parallel with the tray.
While the screws do not touch the MB due to the way the back plate is made the HS is essentially grounded to the tray. That shouldn't cause any problems should it? I can still make modifications and while I am sure everything is still in good condition I don't want the warping as I am very concerned with possibly popping a solder joint somewhere or something. Nice thing about this if it works also is that the tray is supporting a good deal of the Zalman's weight in stead of the motherboard.
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