How tight do you have to fasten the screws?

[KarlMarX]

How tight do you have to fasten the screws with a AM3 motherboard? Just till you can't any tighter?
Is there no chance in damaging you motherboard or cpu if you overtighten?

Thank you.

[docyoung]

Yes, there is chance you could crack the board or strip the screws. Force is not a solution or technique here. Finesse the torque, you should be able to feel resistance to your turns and know if you are forcing. Frequently the turning is easy at first and then at a point it slows down requires little more torque until the screw is seated, it should be flush or close to flush to surface. More turning or tightening once the screw is seated will not secure any better. More torque could strip the screw head, the threads and the other damaged mentioned before. The goal is the cooler secure and stable, not a strength test for us.

Generally, tighten the screws until they resist and are flush, then give a 1/4 to 1/2 turn using no force, just a little more torque. Check to see if the cooler feels secure. The same principle applies in car work and other mechanical activities. If you have done any of those activities to refer to. I have done a few cars in my day. : ^ ))

doc

[sumo]

Hi,

like docyoung said, there is always the possibility to damage the hardware. But the mounting screws are well designed to minimize such posibilities. So the winding of the screws ends at the highest level. Lets say this point is the max. load point for any specifications of motherboards and sockets. In private i allways use this point to fit my Orochi in my case at home and all is fine.

I hope this will help you a little bit.

Kind Regards
Chris

[regor]

Hello,
I had some bad time with the backplate of the Mugen 2: bought to mount on a new Asus P5E-VM-HDMI. I mounted the backplate probably on the wrong orientation -horizontally instead of vertically - (the information note is not very clear on that point) and tightened the screws to the max. The mobo did never boot, I tried many things (crossover testing with other CPU, PSU, graphic card...) and no way to boot (black screen). Finally, I was resigned to send the mobo back (dead on arrival ?) when I checked the backplate and I saw a very deep print of two solder points in the gum. I flipped the backplate (1/4 turn) and then everything went perfectly well....
The end of the 2 solder points made probably contact with the metallic part of the backplate, thus electrical short ? Screws over tightened ?
I don't know if this is already known/reported but it's probably worthwhile to mention it on the information note.
Thanks