VOGONS


First post, by snorg

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So I found an amazing deal on a Xeon board and 2 socket 1366 Xeons and couldn't resist, and got 2 nice heatsinks to go with. They aren't Supermicro heatsinks but I figured it wouldn't be any big deal. Unfortunately, I was incorrect and apparently the screws that arre meant the go through the motherboard and hold the whole shebang together are too large. I can't drill out the holes for fear of damaging the motherboard, and I don't know where I'm going to find proper screws. I can try and find something at the hardware store that will at least fit through the hole and let me mount the heatsink, but I don't know if it is going to be a big deal if I don't have the nuts with the springs on them to hold everything down. I won't be able to use the existing nuts with the replacment screws because they will of course be the wrong size. Do I need to be worried about overtightening everything if I don't have these? I'd hate to crack the damn cpu or motherboard.

Ordering new heatsinks isn't really an option because I have no guarantee that the same thing won't be the case with some other heatsink. Was just wondering if anyone had any other ideas other than the local hardware store.

Reply 1 of 3, by snorg

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Well I guess they must use only Supermicro compatible heatsinks. Looks like I will have to order a set of replacement heatsinks, since I don't think I'm going to also find a set of screws that are going to fit through the threaded holes and be sturdy enough to hold the heatsinks down. Crud.

Reply 2 of 3, by snorg

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Found something that will work. Crossing fingers. Should have double-checked in the first place.

Reply 3 of 3, by nforce4max

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A small few Xeon systems didn't have the coolers mount onto the board at all but rather through holes in the board to the board tray so essentially the coolers appeared to be mounted normally were in fact mounted to the case. You have no choice but to hunt down coolers that have the correct hole arrangement with matching back plates or you will have to mod much more common coolers to fit. I wouldn't put no more than a KG or so of weight on that board between both coolers unless there are mounting holes near enough to handle the stress, beyond that there is a easy way of cooling them but costly.

On a far away planet reading your posts in the year 10,191.