Originally posted by: Finnatic
Are there any installation issues that a newbie would encounter when installing the Thermaltake XP-120 with the K8 bracket or the Hyper 6 cooling solutions for an AMD64 3800+ on a Gigabyte K8NSNXP-939 or MSI Neo 2 Platinum motherboard? I'm going to install in a Lian-Li PC68 mid-tower. I'm a little leary of the Hyper 6 because of its weight.
Should I buy some of the Arctic Silver 5 compound or do these HSF kits include thermal paste?
Also, does using an aftermarket HSF instead of the stock HSF void AMD's 3 year warranty on their retail cpu's?
Thanks for your continued updates on this great guide.
Looking at both motherboards, the Gigabyte has a heatsink/fan unit next to the I/O bracket that *might* conflict with the heatsink. If you look at the pictures on Newegg, you will see what I'm talking about. It should have no issues fitting on the MSI, but it *might* overhang one of the DIMM slots (RAM should still fit though).
The Hyper6 will have an easier time fitting on both motherboards, but it's heavy. It attaches with a bracket that goes under the motherboard, and I'm sure CoolerMaster did their homework when testing the stresses it would cause on a motherboard.
The HSF kits usually include generic thermal paste, but most people agree on the consensus that Arctic Silver and Arctic Ceramique are two of the best compounds you can buy (and they're still reasonably priced).
I don't believe using an aftermarket HS would void the warranty unless you improperly installed it.
And THANKS to the Mods for stickying this thread!