Legit Reviews

After using the ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard with the Corsair Nautilus 500 Water Cooler I found no issues with anything. I then moved over to the Foxconn C51XEM2AA motherboard which is using the same chipset the NVIDIA 590 SLI. What I found was that the AMD Socket AM2 heatsink retention bracket was not the same.

Here are the two retention brackets side by side. Both look close to the same.



Here is a close up of the bring-up tool that has been placed on some of the heat sink retention brackets to develop future new style heat sinks for AMD processors.




Here is the reason the water block wont fit on the foxconn board... The corners of the heatsink retention bracket come out a bit farther.



The ASUS bracket is flat on the side where the screws are and the Corsair Nautilus 500 bracket fits on perfectly.



Sure cutting either bracket down will work, but it would be nice to have something that works out of the box.

Another grip I have is this...



Looking at the PCIe slot where the video card is plugged in you can see the lever to remove the card on the left side. To remove video cards on the ASUS Board it's easy and simple.



Moving over to the Foxconn board try to find the lever... Oh wait they put it on the right side of the slot burried under 2 slots worth of video cards and right on top of the chipset cooler. How are you supposed to remove the cards? I ended up having to use a screwdriver to reach in under the cards and was then able to pull back the tab enough to remove them with the screw driver.

Wouldn't you think that these companies would have this figured out by now? SLI and Crossfire are nothing new these days. I'm also not sure which retention bracket is the official one, but the one on the ASUS boards sure make life easier.

It's the simple things like that make a motherboard stand out (at least for ease of use)

I solved my problem by taking the ASUS bracket off and putting it on the Foxconn board BTW... faster than getting the dremel tool out.

Man that just sucks. Sure would be nice if you could use these tings right out of the gate rather than wondering and rigging. Just plain a pain in the butt!

based on the pic on that ATI board from the AM2 review, it looks like the ATI board has the same retention bracket that the foxcon does... I wonder if that means the one that doesn't fit the corsair water block is the new default one... that would stink.

What's also annoying is that the PCI slots on the Asus board SUCKS! Foxconn actually did better on that one. Geez, it would be nice to have one board manufacturer actually think about these things. Why do the Asus board PCI slots suck? Try to install a 64-bit PCI-X card in those slots. I have two PCI-X cards.

The angle might be what's causing me to question the slots. But even so, would you like to risk the expensive PCI-X card's exposed contacts pass the slot near one of those caps?

Illuminati wrote:based on the pic on that ATI board from the AM2 review, it looks like the ATI board has the same retention bracket that the foxcon does... I wonder if that means the one that doesn't fit the corsair water block is the new default one... that would stink.

I suspect Foxcon have the correct design as they make all of those parts! It's their main business......They make all the little bits like I/O connectors (audio ports etc). They prolly make the brackets for other makers LOL

Maybe this is why Koolance STILL hasn't released and AM2 adapter! GRRRR yeah its been less then a month but im impatient lol

I hate to bring up an old topic, but I found this thread using Google.

My motherboard is still in the case.

How is the heat sink retention bracket connected to the motherboard?

I unscrewed the heat sink bracket from the motherboard to remove the heat sink to make space to install an additional hard drive.

I didn't realize I didn't need to disconnect the bracket to remove the heat sink.

I didn't realize it was the putty that was making the heat sink feel like it was still attached to the processor.

Now the screws to the bracket spin in place and will not engage to reattach the bracket to the mother board.

I suspect something on the other side of the motherboard is used to engage the screws?

Something that now might be sliding around freely between the motherboard and the wall outer wall of the PC maybe?

Or do I just have to push harder to get the screws to engage?

I didn't want to Conan it.

I hope someone sees this topic and would like to help a damsel in distress.

Thanks in advance.

There will have been something like this:



Looks like you are going to have to take the motherboard completely out of the case to put it back on.

Dan