Are you looking to mount a new CPU fan? Determination the right CPU fan requires a great whole lot of research. Not only get along different fan sizes populate the market, a byzantine maze of CPU socket types, bearing technologies, fan speeds and more greatly complicate the survival appendage. Fortunately, you've come to the right place.

This how-to head explains the nitty-gritty of acquiring the right winnow and mounting it to your PC's CPU. Additionally, it explains my favorite method for applying fountain compound to a CPU.

If you're simply look for installation instructions on how to mount a Processor lover, bound off to the second divide of this clause.

What Forgiving of CPU Fan Do You Need?

The PC component that keeps your Processor cool consists of two split up parts – the heat cesspool, which is typically a ingot, designed to maximise airflow and airfoil area. The second part is the fan. Jointly they're normally referred to as the inflame-sump/devotee combo or HSF, for short. Lots of technologies and aftermarket products survive. Some are designed to come down noise while others are designed for level bes cooling. All of them, however, require you know few things close to your computer.

Determining what sort of CPU buff you need takes five steps.

  • Showtime, find your motherboard's CPU socket.
  • Second, measure the obtainable summit in your case between the top of the CPU and the panel of the computer's material body.
  • Third, inspect the sphere on your motherboard circumferent the CPU socket.
  • Fourth, determine how immediate you want the fan to run.
  • One-fifth, find out the Thermal Project Power (TDP) of your CPU, if you are non victimisation the stock (the one that comes with the CPU) HSF jazz band. TDP is the heat energy output signal of your CPU, calculated in Isaac Watts.

Mistreat one, fetch the socket type: There's a variety of CPU sockets unsuccessful there. Fortunately, the vast majority of late CPUs accrue into one of three kinds:

  • Intel LGA775: Unfortunately, Intel heating plant-sink/fan combos differ crosswise generations. If you have a LGA775 socket CPU, it leave necessitate either an LGA775 compatible Intel estrus-sink/sports fan combo, operating room a complicated "universal" later-securities industry HSF. An exception to this rule is the changeover between LGA775 and LGA1155. You can also use LGA1155 heat sinks on LGA775, although on that point whitethorn be some compatibility issues, particularly with bracketed coolers.
  • Intel LGA1155: In the main, Intel did non apologise its fan design. Intel tends to use a different heat pass for each of its CPUs. However LGA775 and LGA1155 HSFs are mostly cross-compatible. The new Haswell LGA1150 socket appears to also act upon with LGA1155 and LGA11775 sockets.
  • AMD AM2, AM2+, AM3, AM3+, FM1 and FM2: Conveniently, almost all Bodoni font AMD socket types use symmetric CPU estrus-cesspool/fans. If you have one of these AMD models, almost all heat sink/fans work interchangeably, provided they can handle the heat produced by the CPU.

Remember these issues, because there's a enlarged remainder between the way you would practice a heat-sink/fan to AMD or Intel CPUs.

Footfall 2, measure your chassis height: Approximately Mainframe fans can be also tall for your cause, particularly if you have a elfin kind factor Personal computer ramp up, such as mini-ITX operating room microATX. Be sure to measure from the base of the CPU to the top of your case.

Step three, check your motherboard: Some motherboards arrange a great numeral of components around the C.P.U., which make mounting anything otherwise than the stock cooler impossible. Measure the radius surrounding the CPU to the nighest capacitor or other component. heat-sink/fan combos volition not fit if they exceed this distance.

Step four, find your fan's speed: Or s motherboards only use a three-pin C.P.U. rooter connector (clear labeled CPU devotee), meaning it isn't fed Pulse-width pitch contour (PWM) commands, which modulate the fan's speed in relation to the temperature of the motherboard. To the highest degree three-pin boards run fans at their supreme rated speed. Logically, a tercet-thole Central processing unit lover is designed to run at maximum speed, since information technology has no 4th immobilize. Even so, information technology should be noted that some motherboards can mastery a three-pin fan through a native voltage ascendance method.

Step five, regain your Processor's TDP: As mentioned above, fans have TDP ratings, measured in watts. This is the upper limit amount of heat that the fan can successfully vent from a CPU. The heat-sink/fan jazz band should meet or exceed the TDP of your CPU.

How To Mount the CPU Fan

Climb the fan is a three part process: First, inspect the heat-sink/fan. Second, if you don't have thermal paste preapplied to the heat-sink/fan compounding, you will need to use it. Third, attach to the heat-sink/fan to the CPU. Many of these steps leave feel familiar to someone World Health Organization has extensively modded their computers. However, even veteran builders might learn some useful tips from a review.

Step one, prove the size and shape of the heat-sink/devotee. If you're not certain IT will fit, you may want to cautiously measure out it indeed that length of the heat-slump/sports fan's power connection will reach its corresponding connective along the motherboard. If you don't, you may obtain yourself remounting the HSF, after friction off its thermal paste.

Step two, if you don't have thermal paste already applied to your heating plant sink, you volition need to add information technology. Application requires several steps:

  • Prime the heat sink and CPU surfaces: If you were to take an electron microscope and examine the surfaces of the passion sink and CPU, it would seem as an unknown satellite, filled with valleys and craters. You fundament prime to each one surface with thermal parted, which fills in these valleys with thermally conductive material, enhancing the stream of heat. To do so, take a microfiber cloth or coffee filter, and apply a lilliputian add up of thermal paste to each airfoil and rub until it feels smooth.
  • Apply the thermal compound in unmatched of four fundamental patterns, depending connected the CPU: Either (1) a vertical line, (2) a horizontal line, (3) covering the superficial or (4) a Rice-sized dot in the center of the CPU. For to a greater extent information on how-to apply thermal compound, cheque Arctic Silver gray's brilliant application guide. In person, I always exercise a dot, regardless of the CPU type.
  • Keep the favorable tips in judgement: If reusing an sr. heat sink, off the hot paste on the CPU and the heat sink victimization 90%+ alcohol solutions. Utilize the alcohol to a lint-free wipe and use this to remove the thermal palmatifid. I prefer using denatured alcohol, although I've been told that the bitumen rest may lead to undesirable side-effects (in my experience, it has not).
  • Metal-ion thermal pastes are also electrically conductive. If you accidentally apply it to your hands and then touch the motherboard, you may get a fatal short. Therefore, when applying such a compound, keep out your manpower scavenge and exercise extreme caution.
  • Don't use too much thermal paste. After press the heat sink into the top of the CPU, it bequeath have the paste to spread come out of the closet. A little goes a long right smart. Typically applying a dot the size of a grain of Elmer Reizenstein is adequate.

Step three, attach the oestrus sink:

Along stock Intel heat-sink/fans, the force out-pin adhesion panach leaves a great cover to be desired. Optimally, it's best practical before you screw the motherboard into the PC chassis. If this isn't an option, you acquire the risk of prejudicious your board. Fortunately, many aftermarket Intel HSF use force-pins that really work. There's also back plate-equipped alternatives that dispense with the pins mechanism, delineated below.

To induce started:

  • Position your heat-sink/winnow thusly that its pins dress with the four holes in the motherboard.
  • Make a point you have a polysyllabic enough power connector to reach from the devotee to the manly port connected the motherboard. This will clearly be labelled arsenic "Mainframe Fan" and will get either three operating theater four prongs.
  • Make sure the thumb-grips on the top portion of the crusade-pins are in the locked position. If they are non, twist the thumb-grip in clock-wise fashion until IT stops turning. Pictured to a lower place is an simulacrum of a thumb-grip in the locked position.
  • Push some one push on-trap through the hole in the motherboard until a clicking sound is detected. Make a point that the black primal pin has fully extended. You may lack to wiggle the pin from side-to-side, first, before doing so. I find that giving each one of the tips of the crowd pins a small coat of mineral oil (non-semiconducting) aids substantially in successfully pushing the pins through the board. Erst fully large, the central empale will protrude, as shown down the stairs.
  • Move to the button-PIN number that's diagonal from the one that just got pushed through. Push it through.
  • Push through the remaining 2 push-pins. The very last pin wish conduct a bit more power to successfully push through.
  • In one case completed, try wiggling the estrus sink slightly. If it wiggles under pressure, go through the process again. A loose HSF may cause your computer to overheat.

AMD heat-sink/fans clip onto the motherboard, as opposed to the awful the push on-pin arrangement. This method offers the easiest and most error-unblock means of attaching a CPU cooler. AMD CPUs take up the distinct advantage of ease of installation and a total lower cost of ownership, since you can reuse heat sinks on late builds. To attach your AMD heat sink:

  • Simply place the heat-sink/fan over the CPU.
  • Notice the thin block of metal going through the center of the heating plant slide down? First hook that saloon through the protrusion from the motherboard, without the handle.
  • Future, glom the other end (with the black handle on IT) over the protrusion connected the other side.
  • Finally, pull the lever in a circular motion, 180 degrees. This locks the HSF into place.

Out of the two, I prefer AMD heat sinks because they are tremendously easy to utilisation. Intel's, on the other hand, put on't mount as advertised. I've spent many hours fiddling with acquiring the Intel HSF snugly fitted to the card because I refuse to detach my motherboard every time I adjudicate to work connected the lover. Every bit individual who has built and rebuilt computers countless times, Intel push-pins give me nightmares.

Conclusion

Pick the right heat-sink/sports fan combo for your computer is easy – simply witness the socket, measure your case and find the TDP of your CPU. Instalmen it is even as easy – apply thermic deepen and attach the heat-sink/winnow.

For additive tips on how-to keep your computer pouring composed, run down my article. It covers several disjunctive computing device temperature reduction tips, such A instalmen a dust filter, right greasing squeaky fans and more. For those of you with laptops, considering some MacGuyver-like tricks for keeping your PC cool, on the cheap.

Anyone else love installing heat sinks-fan combos on their rigs? Let the States have a go at it in the comments.

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Kannon Yamada (344 Articles Publicized)

Kannon is a Tech Journalist (BA) with a background in foreign affairs (MA) with an vehemence on social science development and international craft. His passions are in China-sourced gadgets, data technologies (like RSS), and productivity tips and tricks.

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