Installation Tips

It’s not too difficult to install the Hyper 7 cooler on the mainboard, but not too easy, either. The fact is you have to take the mainboard out of the system case irrespective of the platform. And you have to take the mainboard out, too, if you want to replace your CPU because the cooler is always fastened with screws from the reverse side of the mainboard. It doesn’t hitch at the socket’s retention frame as some other coolers do.

So, you fasten the mounting plate to the cooler’s base with four screws. Choose the right plate for your mainboard:

When I received the cooler I found that the screws were already inserted into the LGA775 plates. So, if you are going to install your Hyper 7 on Socket 754, 939, 940 or AM2, you should first put those screws into the appropriate holes in the plate and then fasten the plate to the cooler’s base. When you’re installing the Hyper 7 on Socket AM2, you can insert the screws after the plate is secured on the cooler, but it’s going to be problematic with Socket 754/939/940 (at least when you’ll try to insert them from the fan side).

Then you should remove the protective layer from the included rubber circles and glue them to the mounting holes on the mainboard. After that, you can install the cooler on the mainboard, choosing its orientation as to organize airflows in the most efficient way, if possible. To direct the air stream towards the rear panel of the system case on mainboards for AMD K8 processors it is necessary that the holes on the mainboard are placed at right angle to the rear panel rather than in parallel to it (which is often the case).

The cooler installation procedure is an exercise for equilibrists. You have to press the cooler tight to the mainboard with one hand (and the mainboard should also be somehow held in place) and fasten nuts on the reverse side of the mainboard through spacers and a back-plate. I found an easier way, though. Sit down and hold the cooler upside down with your legs. Then put the mainboard down on the cooler’s fastening screws, put the back-plate, and fasten the nuts with the included spanner. Make sure that nothing interferes in the near-socket space and that the mainboard is not bended. Don’t fasten the nuts to the full right away. Just put them on the screws by a couple of turns, then turn the mainboard upside down and check everything out. Then you can fully tighten the nuts. You’ll have the following on the reverse side of your mainboard:

Such an inconvenient way of fastening the cooler kills any desire to change the processor or, for example, test thermal pastes with the Hyper 7. But at least this fastening is reliable, that’s sure. When installing the cooler on LGA775, you turn the nuts with the same spanner, but through the plastic spacers, and do not use a back-plate. The height of the fastened nuts is 6mm whatever you use, the back-plate or the plastic spacers.

You’ll have the following in your system case as the result (with a Socket 939 mainboard):

Inside the system case the Socket 939 platform will look as follows:

I want to note once again that the cooler can be oriented in any of four possible positions on LGA775. When testing the Hyper 7 on this platform, I positioned it in such a way that the air stream from its fan was directed towards the 120mm system fan on the rear panel of the system case.