No more mounting holes on Socket A motherboards from MSI

[Technoid]

I wa s checking their latest motherboards and saw a bad trend....

No more mounting holes on their mobos

[DGhost]

yeah, AMD removed this from their spec when they updated it for the Throughbred core processors... they also specified a heavier heatsink, for the ones that will be comeing out later in the year...

there was some speculation that it was originally because of the water cooling rigs that AMD used to demo some of the high end processors (the 1.4ghz tbird, back when they were only at 1.0 for shipping).... and since they have not used them in quite some time in production machines...

there is also some speculation that it was because of the motherboard manufacturers, and the fact that they pretty much always were unhappy about how difficult it made things... and the fact that most of them screwed it up anyways...

[Taz]

Great so that means I won't be able to use my Zalman CNPS5100Cu on later boards then

Surely if they're specifying larger, heavier heatsinks the holes will be more important, rather than less important, as it's a better way to support the heatsink compared to the clip

[KvHagedorn]

This trend sucks. Those holes are an absolute Godsend for mounting a heatsink. I have hated clips since Pentium days.. trying to fudge around with a 2 cent spring to protect your expensive processor and worrying about gouging your motherboard with a screwdriver. I thought things had actually made an advancement in this world..

[Goc]

So I guess I'll also have to ditch my Alpha... ****oles...

[DGhost]

part of the new specification is also that they have to use all three of the tabs to clip to on each side, so the theory is that it will distribute the pressure evenly....

that being said, i saw a guy who managed to take all three and a chunk of the socket off, and he didn't even put the heatsink on it yet...

as for the merits of mounting through those holes... for convenience i would take a clip anyday... i can mount/unmout the old intel retail hsfs in 5 seconds, along with pretty much any other clip heatsink except for the thermaltake products... and well, thats just cause thermal take sucks...

my pal8045 is a wonderful heatsink, does an excellent job cooling, and is 100% stable, but i hate having to take the thing on and off, and i honestly fear damaging things more with this than a clipped heatsink... clipped heatsinks don't cause the motherboard to bow when installed correctly....

also, keep in mind that the Hammer processors are gonna use a retention clip design similar to the P4's except only using two holes instead of 4....

[Wombat]

Clips suck. Whoever designed a mounting system so that I'm supposed to take a SCREWDRIVER and apply DOZENs of pounds of force directly in the direction of my motherboard should be shot.

I love the McKinley setups largely for this reason. One ZIF socket with screw (not lever arm), then four spring-tensioned screws that go through the McKinley heatsink and screw in to the metal frame mounted on the motherboard. It doesn't get any easier to work with than that. I've probably mounted those things a thousand times.

[mutz]

...clips are likely the fastest method for mass assemblers, but that's no reason to do away with the holes for those who prefer them. Of course manufacturers try to make as much fumble-finger proof as possible, so that's a factor too, though there are people who can **** up anything no matter how ****up proof you make it, ask tech support from any company...

[Technoid]

I was hoping that I would be able to buy a new MSI board and use my athlon 1300 and Alpha PAL8045 on it
(a sis 746 board for my NLE )

[Dogbert]

Clips are very easy to **** up. LikeKvH and Wombat said, trying to release a hard to reach clip needs a screwdriver and some force. This could mean a disaster for your Mobo.

[mutz]

... I know, I'm a fumble thumb too, but have you ever seen a video of a Taiwan assembly line? Those girls, whaka-chak, whaka-chak...

[DGhost]

bleh, most clips are fine... not to say that their aren't better mounting methods on the whole, but they are for the most part totally fine... there are definately some that suck (pretty much any thermaltake, the newer globalwins), but most good ones are easy to put on, easy to take off, even with a screw driver... all you need to do is apply force behind where the thumb-tab-thingy is with a flathead screwdriver, slightly angling it with the clip so its towards heatsink. most clips are usually wide enough so that slipping off to the side isn't really a problem if you use the right screwdriver... it also leaves your thumb free for working that clip-tabby-thing, and if the screwdriver slips you usually wind up with the head inside the heatsink instead of in contact with the motherboard...

the P4 clipping method is a nice one, i would rather have something like that than my PAL8045's any day... 8 screws and 2 different screwdrivers to get it off... and it usually involves me having to unmount the motherboard at the same time, because the retard that designed the motherboard mounts didn't forsee that you might unscrew them too while you are trying to take the heatsink off... and then the joy of having to put it back together... that being said, i do still love the cooler... having a metal frame like the McKinley or the P4's for it to mount to would pretty much eliminate most of my complaints about it...

[Technoid]

DangerDens latest Watercoolers for Athlon has clip fastening.....

I really hope that AMD sets a solid and lasting standard for the hammers