Andy Samurai Master and Stabilizer on Asus P5Q-E

[vieira]

Dear community,

I am trying to install the Andy Samurai Master on an Asus P5Q-E mainboard using the Stabilizer Kit. I am fine with positioning the cooler and everything, however I have some doubts about the stabilizer kit. I followed the instructions and attached the backplate to the mainboard using the screws for the backplate, the insulation washers as well as the fixing screws for the backplate. However, I cannot tightly fix them togehter. At a certain point, I cannot tighten the screw any further (so far I have avoided excessive force) even though this would be necessary to tightly fit everything together. Is this intended or should everything be really tight without space for movement? I would greatly appreciate timely help on this!

Thanks in advance!
vieira

[ngdbsdmn]

Hi,

I saw these problems you've had with getting Andy Samurai Master (AMS) to work on P5Q-E. I also have some worries about this setup.

If you or someone else in the forum can give me some answers to the following questions, that would be great.

1. After all, is AMS compatible with Asus P5Q-E? I saw on the compatibility list that it fits on P5Q Deluxe in only one position. The layout of P5Q-E is pretty similar to P5Q Deluxe but I'm worried that it may not fit because of some small difference. I'm also worried that my Corsair XMS2 DHX may not fit in the memory slots but let's say I could bend some of those DHX radiator fins to get the memories to work.
2. Why is the stabilizer kit required? Isn't the cooler supposed to come with everything needed to mount it securely? Do I have to also buy it?

Thanks

[hiroshige]

Hello ngdbsdmn,

actually we only can distinguish the compatibility of our coolers by having a look at pictures. Thus I would say, that Andy Samurai Master should work without any problems.

Stabilizer is not needed necessarily - you don't have to buy it because Andy Samurai Master is out-of-the-box compatible with LGA775.

Cheers,
Stefan - Scythe EU Hamburg

[ngdbsdmn]

Thanks for the honest reply. I will post my experience with AMS and P5Q-E after I buy the motherboard.

As for the stabilizer kit, I still can't see a really good explanation about when it's needed and that's wrong marketing. I could guess that having AMS's 0.7 Kg hanging vertically on the MB is a lot of stress that can break the PCB or have the CPU/Cooler contact loosened. Maybe people that move their unit a lot would be more likely to run into this kind of problem so they would want to really screw the cooler to the PCB. But that's just leading you into a very very convenient answer.

[hiroshige]

Hello ngdbsdmn,

the Stabilizer of course has some advantages - some users don't trust the Push-Pins when transporting their PC e.g. onto LAN-parties etc. and for some Mainboards, Push-Pin mounting can be difficult due to less space between heatsinks on the mainboard and the CPU Cooler.

Cheers,
Stefan - Scythe EU Hamburg

[ngdbsdmn]

Hi,

I purchased all the components and now I can confirm that AMS is indeed compatible with P5Q-E. However, it will not fit in the optimal position (with the heatpipes closest to the nortbridge). It fits in the two other accepted positions, with the heatpipes closest to the memory slots and 180 degrees rotated, with the heatpipes closest to the backpanel I/O ports. The optimal position on P5Q-E is with the heatpipes closest to the memory slots. In this position the heatpipes do not even reach the memory slots and you can use any DIMMS, no matter how tall (I happen to have Corsair XMS2 DHX which are very tall and there is no problem).

I also discovered why the LGA 775 stabilizer is actually required and not an option. If the standard push pins are used, there are two big drawbacks: 1. the PCB will bend and 2. the installation will be a horrible horrible pain to complete, especially if the motherboard already has tall heatsinks around the CPU socket. The PCB bend was not scary on my P5Q-E but it may be on motherboards with weaker PCBs and it may get worse over time. When I switched to the stabilizer, the installation was very easy. The PCB still bends but you can clearly see how the backplate takes more load than the PCB. The whole cooler/motherboard ansamble is also more stable. The only issue I noticed is that even though the manual sais to use the thick insulation washer, after fully and tightly screwing the backplate, the AMS arms from the CPU side of the motherboard do not touch the PCB. It's not a big deal though, as the whole assembly is rock solid.

I still haven't actually gotten to use the cooler (still working on the new workstation) but I think feature wise it's ok. However, anyone considering AMS should actually buy the son of AMS: Kabuto. This is because the latter has some important features that AMS is either missing (Kabuto has better airflow when placed with the heatpipes closest to the memory slots because of the split fin design) or would cost extra, making AMS much more expensive (Kabuto has out of the box support for LGA 1366 and a PWM fan). The only really good thing AMS has over Kabuto is the possibility to get this LGA 775 stabilizer kit with the backplate but even this advantage is not relevant on LGA 1366 motherboards because these MBs come with a backplate by default.

[sumo]

Hello ngdbsdmn,

thank you very much for you detailed explanation.

About the Stabilizer Kit issue: The Kit is designed to not touch the PCB on the front. The Stabilizer Kit works only through the attraction between the backplate, screws and the mounting clips. The washers in this place are more for the safty point.

Chris
Scythe EU GmbH

[ngdbsdmn]

Hi,

I managed to run some stability tests on my new workstation and everything seems to be OK. The CPU is an E8500 overclocked at 3.8 Ghz from the stock 3.2 Ghz.

The results were:

Idle:
- System: 37 C
- CPU: 26 C
- CPU Core: 40 C

Prime 95 (5h, max CPU burn on both cores):
- System: 40 C
- CPU: 50 C
- CPU Core: 57 C

Prime 95 (5h, CPU/RAM blended test):
- System: 41 C
- CPU: 50 C
- CPU Core: 58 C

So, overall these are decent results taking into account that all the case coolers are running on low and I didn't use any special thermal compound. The results are giving me a headroom of about 10 C over the summer and this is a very good thing because I don't think I'll have to throttle the overclock to cope with the hot summer nights.

[sumo]

Hi,

your results look nice and i think you should not get into any trouble in summer with this temperatures.

Kind Regards
Chris