X-bit labs

Two Towers: Noctua Heatpipe Coolers Review (page 5)

Category: Coolers

by Sergey Lepilov

[ 04/17/2006 | 04:09 PM ]

Installing Noctua coolers on Socket 939 (754/940) and Socket T (LGA775)

Remove the protective film from the cooler’s sole before you install it! Don’t snub this remark as I myself have lost count of how many times I had to correct this problem after inexperienced users turned to tech support crying they had been given a defective cooler. :)

It was easy and simple to install the heatsinks. You should fasten two U-shaped plates to the heatsink’s sole to mount it on a Socket 939/754/940 mainboard.

Then put a thin layer of thermal paste on the processor. Next, install the heatsink on the CPU’s heat-spreader and fasten it to the appropriate back-plate with two black spring-loaded screws.

Note that there’s nothing at all at the heatsink’s left side, but there are memory modules under its right edge. I actually mounted the heatsink without problems, but you may find it difficult to plug memory modules in and taken them out with the heatsink installed.

To complete the installation of the cooler on Socket 939/754/940, hitch a 120mm fan to it using the wire braces.

The orientation of a Noctua heatsink on a Socket 939/754/940 platform depends on the position of the mounting holes as well as of the CPU socket itself. If they are placed along the mainboard, the heatsink cannot be oriented in the best way possible, i.e. so that the fan was blowing towards the back panel of the system case.

The Socket T (LGA775) platform is free from this drawback. Before mounting a Noctua cooler on a Socket T (LGA775) mainboard, glue the appropriate back-plate to the mainboard’s reverse side (do not forget to remove the protective film from the back-plate before doing that).

Then you should use the included spacers to fasten two rails to the back-plate through the mainboard’s mounting holes.

The holes are placed in a symmetrical order around the CPU socket on any Socket T (LGA775) mainboard, so these rails can be placed in any position to orient your Noctua in the best possible way inside the system case. A couple of shorter rails are used for Socket 478. Note that positioning the rails as shown in the snapshot will not prevent you from putting the CPU into the socket later. It is harder to insert the CPU or take it out if the rails are placed in parallel to the socket lever.