ok, this is driving me up the wall.
I'm guessing I've got a defective stock cooler because at system startup, the BIOS reports 50C and then it goes to 58C after a few minutes.
At one point, I did get it down to 29C by turning the screws on the heatsink counterclockwise and then pushing it in while turning, but it's now apparently loose again.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a similar size fan that doesn't require a backplate? I don't want to tear the system down again and don't have a lot of space in this HTPC case. The Big Shuriken is out because I have RAM too close to the socket
Thermaltake CLP0555?
or Silverstone NT07-1156?

Can't find any reviews for the Thermaltake

No backplate, or no bolt-through? I have the Kozuti in that case, which does a good job with temperature and is quite compact. It bolts through, though, so you'd have to remove the motherboard. Honestly, your sort of issue is why I only trust that sort of heatsink, and I'd recommend taking the what, half hour? to put a good heatsink on with a solid retention mechanism, then not worry about it for a good long time.

I can't recommend having a cpu cooler without a backplate.

to tear it apart again. Took about that long when I tried getting an Antex 620 water cooler in (doesn't fit BTW...it'd have to be mounted externally)-: I had to abort and install the stock cooler instead.

The Scythe SCKZT-1000 Kozuti looks similar to the Big Shuriken, which means it'll hit the memory on the board.

You'd think they'd reinforce those plastic mounting pins in the non-backplate coolers. I'm still puzzled as to why it's not cooling properly...tried thin layer of cooling paste, thicker layer of cooling paste (artic ceramique) and when pulling it off, it looks like all the paste migrated away from the contact area.

The push pins on the stock cooler can be extremely fiddly. They work well enough the first time you install it but after that they can wear out making the cooler useless. I would also recommend a bolt through cooler. If you need something compact, there are models which are basically copies of the intel stock cooler only with a bolt through mounting system. Is there a specific reason why you want to avoid a backplate (like lack of clearance behind the motherboard)?

Not sure how much clearance does the GD05 has with optical drive (or if you are using one), but the Thermalright AXP-140 is low profile cooler, 70mm height (with no fan), and its enough to handle my Xeon E3 1230 (similar to i5 2500K) with an Noiseblocker PK1 (700rpm) and around 20C ambient temp, i get 28C idle and 55C load (prime95 1hour large ffts), since the gd05 has two 120mm fans so near you might be able to run it without a fan fine... but each case is different so idk for sure. The AXP140 is tall enough to fit standard memory below it (no tall heatsinks like vengance), here a sneak peak of my server so you get the idea,

If pushing the heatsink down helped temps then it sounds like it is not mounted properly.

Make sure you turn all the pins opposite the arrows (ie clockwise) as far as they go before mounting. The arrows are for un-mounting. Push down on the heatsink to make sure the outer part of the locking mechanism goes through all four holes before locking them down. If you push the locking mechanism down before the outer part is through it will expand on the near side of the MB.

Also, don't use the BIOS temp monitoring for idle. The BIOS won't enable any of the power saving that the OS will so your temps will be higher.

@ntasvlas: no reason to hate backplates. Just didn't want to go through ripping everything out and reinstalling again

Abula: the Thermalright unfortunately is too wide. I've got two HDD and a DVD drive in this and the widest thing that can fit is a Big Shuriken which hits memory when fully loaded (unfortunately bought some w/ the heat spreaders because they were inexpensive). Size is just a bit bigger than the Shuriken but enough to hit the DVD mount:
http://www.thermalright.com/products/in ... d=27&id=99
http://www.scythe-eu.com/forum/shuriken ... sions.html

Thanks for the other tip Washu...didn't work unfortunatley, so I'm going to assume it's toast
It did read 29C for a while (made the mistake of standing the case on its side for a while), but didn't stay that way so I'm assuming the plastic junk is just worn out. I'll probably try the Silverstone NT07 first and if that doesn't work, I'll do the backplate thing.
I thought the pushpin thing was a great idea until I hit all these issues. Intel should just put on a standard backplate that everyone can screw into like they used to

Thanks all. Will report back on my results...

The Kozuti is not the same size as the Big Shuriken. Mine touched the heatspreader on my memory, but only just barely. It fits, and has plenty of clearance to an optical drive in that case, if you're using one. I'm not going to recommend a pushpin cooler, for the reasons you're discovering. Take the damn hour and do it right. And honestly, it's more like half an hour for mine, so it should be quicker now that you've done it a couple of times. Do you want your CPU cooled correctly, or do you want to play a few rounds of Fun With Pushpins before taking the time to do it right?

Doh...that was a research fail...I didn't know it worked on the GD05 case...thought the Big Shuriken was the biggest that would fit.
Now I have to see if I can change my Amazon order...

The K is smaller than the BS - that's why I went with it, so I could get low-latency RAM with heatspreaders. If the BS won't interfere with your memory, it's better than the K. Why did you order it? I thought you said it would interfere. If it won't, use it. If it will interfere, cancel/ return it and get a K.

Are you mixing up the Kozuti with a different cooler? It's a really small one; I wouldn't expect you to think it's bigger than a Big Shuriken.

Posted the spec pages of the K vs. the BS above. Unless I misread it, it looks like the K is bigger than the BS.
I meant I ordered the Silverstone NT07...wasn't able to cancel it in time before it shipped

Big Shuriken: 125 x 135 x 58 mm
Kozuti: 110 x 103 x 40 mm

You linked to a Thermalright AXP-140 RT, not a Scythe Kozuti. That's here:

http://www.scythe-eu.com/en/products/cp ... ooler.html

And reviewed on SPCR here:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/scythe-kozuti

Thanks for the size corrections.

Also found another possibility...the Prolimatech Samuel 17:
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/ha ... ew-11.html
People have also gotten this into a GD05 w/ the DVD mount in place.

Oh yes, I remember looking at the Samuel too, but felt safer, memory heatspreader-wise, going with the Kozuti. The Samuel seems to suffer a bit, in my eyes, by not being as compact as the Kozuti, and when I'm not concerned about component interference, the Big Shuriken works better. That would work as well for you, though.