An amusing article with some very apposite advice!http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1620668,00.aspMike

Been there, done that.Last summer I decided to add a fan to the northbridge on my A7N8X Rev 1.04 motherboard. Enterprising soul that I am, I did all the proper research and made my choice. The itty-bitty cooler came with a couple of those plastic barbed pins, and they looked kinda hoakey to me. Always one willing to try re-inventing the wheel, I decided to use a couple of machine screws (stainless steel socket head cap screws... we don't do anything half-way around here). Installed the fan with my high tech screws, nylon washers, and elastic stop nuts (wouldn't want those nuts vibrating loose under flight loads). Rightfully pleased with my perfect endeavor, I put it all back together and pushed the magic button.Hello? Hellllooo??? Anybody home in there?Complete silence and no pretty lights. I remember thinking to myself, "This can't be good". DUH!!! Do ya think???So I pull it all apart and see where I had broken two traces near one of the n/b fan mounnting holes. Off I went to buy a new motherboard. And I installed that itty-bitty fan on it... using those barbed plastic pins!My wife learned early on in our relationship to be wary whenever I decide to "fix" or make something "work better". To this day she always cringes, and asks that most painful of all wifely questions, "How much will this cost?".Greg

That was cheap. I have almost killed a 500$ 9700 PRO video card when trying to remove the heatsink on it. Thought it had the same pushpins as my old Geforce 4 ti-4600 but the problem was you just couldn

Yeah, I haven't killed a video card... yet. As much as I like playing with them though, I'm sure one of these days I'll add one to the dead list.Greg