Megahalems Mega-poor tolerances.

Cooling Processors quietly

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Edwood
Posts: 460
Joined: Wed Aug 28, 2002 4:48 pm
Location: My Secret Laboratory

Megahalems Mega-poor tolerances.

Post by Edwood » Tue Mar 09, 2010 6:42 pm

Anyone else have problems with the Spring-loaded screws not fitting through the holes in the Cross bar aluminum plate that clamps onto the heatsink?

Looks like I'm going to have to ream out the hole to get them to fit through. Really, Prolima? This is pretty poor engineering to me. Everything else is very well thought out and designed, only to have piss poor engineering/manufacturing at the end. I would've expected more in such an expensive heatsink. I shouldn't have to modify it to get such a basic fit to work.

-Ed

edan
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Joined: Thu Jun 04, 2009 8:24 pm
Location: Charlotte, NC

Re: Megahalems Mega-poor tolerances.

Post by edan » Tue Mar 09, 2010 7:37 pm

Edwood wrote:Anyone else have problems with the Spring-loaded screws not fitting through the holes in the Cross bar aluminum plate that clamps onto the heatsink?
-Ed
I'm too tired to go search for my old build thread, I might have had better notes there. What I do remember is that getting both screws to thread nicely was a little tricky and the only "hard" part of the installation. In my case anyway, I remember that both screws threaded decently enough into the brackets when the brackets were in "free space" but in the tight confines of my TJ-08 case it was a little tricky.

As I recall, I was able to carefully turn the screws on both sides slowly in reverse until I felt them seat, and then I had to apply a bit of pressure on at least on side to get it to thread down. Hmm, maybe that's why I'm not excited about removing the heatsink to remove the mobo from the case to replace the NB's heatsink thermal paste :)

Anyway, if your screws don't thread in properly with the mounting brackets in free space, I hope you can return it without too much fuss. Good luck.

Edwood
Posts: 460
Joined: Wed Aug 28, 2002 4:48 pm
Location: My Secret Laboratory

Post by Edwood » Tue Mar 09, 2010 7:50 pm

Yeah, I tried every which way to get them into the hole, twisting them both ways, pushing really hard, wiggling, etc.

I ended up just reaming the holes out a bit with a power drill. And they fit perfectly now. Pretty easy fix, but I shouldn't have to do that with such an expensive heatsink. If it was something worse, I would've RMA'd it, but it would also hold up my entire computer build, as it's pretty difficult to run a computer without the CPU heatsink.

-Ed

Rucker
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Joined: Mon Aug 03, 2009 12:44 pm
Location: Colorado USA

Post by Rucker » Wed Mar 10, 2010 8:27 am

My first one had the same problem; the second one did not.

edan
Posts: 57
Joined: Thu Jun 04, 2009 8:24 pm
Location: Charlotte, NC

Post by edan » Wed Mar 10, 2010 7:32 pm

Edwood wrote:I ended up just reaming the holes out a bit with a power drill. And they fit perfectly now. Pretty easy fix, but I shouldn't have to do that with such an expensive heatsink. If it was something worse, I would've RMA'd it, but it would also hold up my entire computer build, as it's pretty difficult to run a computer without the CPU heatsink.
It's pretty difficult to RMA a heatsink after you have taken a power tool to it, too :) I'm glad it worked it out for you, I would not have had the guts to do it. And you could always run it with the stock heatsink :)

By the way, if you are still using the ASUS Rampage II GENE motherboard in a small case, have you taken care of your northbridge cooling? Mine runs pretty hot ( 73C with CPU at 48C and "MB" at 32C according to the LCD POSTER). Some people say replacing the thermal paste works, I've just run a fan from the side of my TJ-08 and that brought the temps down too.

Just FYI, you might want to figure it out before you get shoved into your small case... but perhaps its too late :)

Edwood
Posts: 460
Joined: Wed Aug 28, 2002 4:48 pm
Location: My Secret Laboratory

Post by Edwood » Wed Mar 10, 2010 7:35 pm

Yeah, I'll keep an eye out on the temps. I've done some modding for extra cooling as well.

The Megahalems has a really nice mounting system otherwise, which makes up for the crappy tolerances.

-Ed

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