How far are you supposed to screw in the 4 screws that secure the heatsink? Should the screws thread all the way through the nuts to where the ends of the screws are flush with the tops of the nuts? Or should I still be able to see some threads visible below the assembly clips?

Help! I can't figure this out!

I have no idea about that cooler, but most (so long as you are using the whole mounting kit rather than some of it and some of something else) you just screw down until its stops. Every one I have ever used that is spring-mounted is the same.

But before you continue, wait for someone else to respond because I may be wrong, and caution is sensible.


Andy

This is the official install video by Scythe Europe which hopefully will provide the answer.

Thanks, but I watched that already. It was helpful in the beginning of the install. But it doesn't explain how far to screw in the screws in the final step. It would have been nice if they showed a picture of it close up fully installed.

Yes, I agree it's awkward. There's some give in the rubber washers but it should still be possible to feel when the screws lock.

Have you installed one of these? The screws are only about half way through the nuts on mine, but I started to see the wings of the assembly clips beginning to pull (bend) down toward the logicboard, so I stopped tightening.

Yes I am familiar with the Scythe locknut system but only from one of the earlier Mugens. If the CPU cooler seems firmly clamped to you then it should be OK.

Just looking at the amount of threads still visible below the assembly clips, and looking downward into the nuts from above, it appears I've got about another 1/8" or so to go before the screws are all the way in. It appears that I should just continue to tighten until the screws are the are all the way into the nuts and tighten down and stop turning. But if I'm supposed to "guesstimate" as to where to stop at some point before they are fully screwed in, I have no idea how to do that.

Yes, as only the top part of the screw is threaded it will lock if you tighten it right up. So that will in any case limit how much pressure the fixing can put on the CPU heat spreader.

That makes sense. I eMailed Scythe support and they got back to me the same day which was pretty nice. They said the same thing - just keep tightening until the screws stop turning and be careful not to strip the threads. So I did that and all seems OK.

But the 'wings' of the mounting plate and assembly clips do bend toward the logicboard somewhat, and there is some slight warping of logicboard under the CPU. I suppose this is normal and I'm just not used to it - this being my first new build in many years, I haven't used one of these large tower type coolers before.

It is indeed too often normal, and that does not make it a good thing. The bending of those arms/wings tends to put more pressure around the edges of the CPU heatspreader, while pulling up a bit on the center. None of this is good, imo. Not only is there less than ideal even pressure, but once the arms of bent, there's the possibility of further bending over time. One way to eliminate the issue is to use sturdy tubular spacers of exactly the right height on the screws, between the motherboard and the wings.

Hey Mike, thanks!
I like your idea of using the spacers, but doing so would require, it seems, either that one uses longer screws than those provided, or else not tightening the supplied screws all the way in. When I started this thread, I had tightened to the point at which the bending had only just begun, and the screws were only about a third of the way into the nuts.