When to attach the fan heatsink assembly?

The Intel instructions for attaching the fan heatsink specifically say,
"With the MOTHERBOARD INSTALLED IN THE CHASSIS..."

I put together my first socket 778 system this summer following these
directions and it was frightening. The problem was the amount of force and
motherboard flexing I had to use to get all four tabs to snap into the
motherboard holes. I'm actually surprised the system works but it does.

My question is, why does Intel say to attach the fan heatsink with the
motherboard installed? Wouldn't it be safer for the motherboard to mount
the fan heatsink with the motherboard outside of the case? I'll be putting
together a new system later in the month. I was thinking of just holding
the motherboard in my hands and pressing both sides of the board to snap in
the fan heatsink. This way the motherboard doesn't have to flex and I'll
get a better idea of whether the pins are aligned instead of just pressing
down blindly. Does any of this make sense? What do other people do?

I recently completed my first PC build, this with the Intel DP35DP mobo. I
installed the CPU, CPU heatsink/fan, and memory cards onto the mobo before
installing the mobo into the case. There were some non-Intel "how to build"
articles advising this which made sense to me. Afterwards, this seemed like
very correct advice which certainly made the install effort easier while
still being a correct and safe effort.

Also, I installed a Power Supply unit that used modular power cables. I
wished that I first had connected the necessary power cables to it prior to
its installation. In connecting cables to it afterwards, my too-large
fingers caused a difficult connection effort.

--- Frank

"Santas Helper" <> wrote in message
news: er.mixmin.net...
> The Intel instructions for attaching the fan heatsink specifically say,
> "With the MOTHERBOARD INSTALLED IN THE CHASSIS..."
>
> I put together my first socket 778 system this summer following these
> directions and it was frightening. The problem was the amount of force
> and
> motherboard flexing I had to use to get all four tabs to snap into the
> motherboard holes. I'm actually surprised the system works but it does.
>
> My question is, why does Intel say to attach the fan heatsink with the
> motherboard installed? Wouldn't it be safer for the motherboard to mount
> the fan heatsink with the motherboard outside of the case? I'll be
> putting
> together a new system later in the month. I was thinking of just holding
> the motherboard in my hands and pressing both sides of the board to snap
> in
> the fan heatsink. This way the motherboard doesn't have to flex and I'll
> get a better idea of whether the pins are aligned instead of just pressing
> down blindly. Does any of this make sense? What do other people do?

Santas Helper wrote:
> The Intel instructions for attaching the fan heatsink specifically say,
> "With the MOTHERBOARD INSTALLED IN THE CHASSIS..."
>
> I put together my first socket 778 system this summer following these
> directions and it was frightening. The problem was the amount of force and
> motherboard flexing I had to use to get all four tabs to snap into the
> motherboard holes. I'm actually surprised the system works but it does.
>
> My question is, why does Intel say to attach the fan heatsink with the
> motherboard installed? Wouldn't it be safer for the motherboard to mount
> the fan heatsink with the motherboard outside of the case? I'll be putting
> together a new system later in the month. I was thinking of just holding
> the motherboard in my hands and pressing both sides of the board to snap in
> the fan heatsink. This way the motherboard doesn't have to flex and I'll
> get a better idea of whether the pins are aligned instead of just pressing
> down blindly. Does any of this make sense? What do other people do?
>
Most motherboards come with a generous supply of little plastic spacers
to put under parts of the motherboard to provide support, rather than
hold the board in place. There are exceptions, but in general you can
support the m/b under the CPU, memory, and any cables which seem a problems.

That said, the only reason to delay the installation of the CPU and/or
fan is making it easier to get the m/b into place. That can be a PITA
for some cases and non-issue for others.

If you have no trouble getting th m/b in with the CPU and fan installed,
why do it the hard way? I do it that way when clearance makes it practical.

--
Bill Davidsen
He was a full-time professional cat, not some moonlighting
ferret or weasel. He knew about these things.