Directory  Reviews Cooling Reviews |
| Swiftech MCX4000 |
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Page 3 of 4
Installation
  With large heatsinks like the MCX4000, mounting mechanisms are always very interesting. When mounting such a heatsink like the MCX 462 on an Athlon based motherboard, it is required that you have four mounting holes available (not all Athlon motherboards have these holes). With the Pentium 4 socket 478 however, four mounting holes are always present because the stock retention frame uses these holes. Simply remove the retention frame and the holes become available for use.
 You will notice four screws around the heatsink. These four Philips screws are pre-installed into the heatsink base with springs to insure the correct about of force is applied. Unfortunately the motherboard must be removed to install this heatsink as you’ve probably already gathered. If your building a new system this should be no problem as the motherboard is not yet installed. If your system is already built, this might be somewhat of a hassle.
  Swiftech designed the mounting mechanism with much experience. If you’re careful, there is really no way to damage your motherboard or CPU. Simply install all four standoffs into the four holes remembering to place a washer on the backside of the motherboard for each standoff. Placing the washer is imperative, as it will prevent damage to your motherboard. Then simply secure each lock nut to the standoff. You may use a mini socket wrench to tighten the lock-nut but make sure not to use excessive force.
  Proper preparation of the CPU is a must! Too often users will apply more heatsink compound than is really necessary. Applying too much compound can actually have negative effects on performance. In the corner on your CPU, apply a small dot of thermal compound. Then use a flat object (razor blade, credit card, poker card etc…) to spread the compound over the Pentium 4’s heat spreader. Only a very thin layer is needed, do insure however that the entire heat spreader is covered with compound.
 Place the heatsink over the CPU and line the four screws up with the four standoffs. Holding the heatsink in place, begin tightening the screws in a crisscross like pattern. Once you feel the screws can’t go any further and the heatsink feels secure your ready for action!
 As you can see from the above images, the heatsink was a rather tight fit on our Gigabyte GA-8PE667 Ultra 2 motherboard. I had to slightly bend some of the motherboard components in order to install the heatsink.
 You have a plethora of fans you can choose for use on the MCX4000. Some might opt for the loud extreme performance fan, while others go for the low noise approach. Once you have chosen a fan, secure it to the heatsink using the appropriate screws provided by Swiftech. (Although our MCX4000 didn’t come with this feature, you now have the ability to use a larger 90mm fan with the use of the provided fan brackets).
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