CPU cooler replacement (stock to H100) without removing mobo from case

[brucek 38]

I recently purchased an installed an i7 2600K CPU into a P8P67 Pro board. I also purchased a water cooling system (Corsair Hydro H100), but wanted to make sure that the system worked first before adding water cooling to the mix (which I have no prior experience with). In fact I purchased this new system because my older system had failed (no OC and stock cooling) after 18 months when I had attempted to change PC cases to introduce better air flow cooling throughout the case (I still don’t know what happened but I was about to upgrade anyway, so this provided the excuse).I also have the new case referred to above, which as I understand offers the ability to change CPU cooling devices without removing the motherboard, by way of a small opening on the back side of the case that allows access to the area behind the CPU.Just so I understand enough and am able to look for pitfalls- has anyone else replaced a CPU cooling device without removing the mobo, and if so- is it as easy and simple as it looks, or at least sounds in the PC case manual?Thanks, Bruce.

[ArjenVdv 190]

If there's opening on the back side it should be no problem. I recommend taking the RAM and graphics card out to give yourselve some room. Luckily, the part that goes onto the CPU is pretty small so it shouldn't be that much of a problem. Simply screw the boults into the cooler part that goes onto the CPU, put the backplate on the other side, and attach it using screws that came with it. Then just install the radiator - if you have the room - than the tubes and it should work. Make sure though that the fans of the radiator are configured for intake.

[Illegitimi non carborundum 4]

Bruce as Arjen says you can do it by removing both side panels and if it is a good case it will give you access to the rear of the mobo so you can easily install the "reinforcing" struts to take the cooling module. I did this a couple of weeks ago installing a thermaltake water cooler with no issues at all. If the board is an ATX it is much easier than if it is m-ATX (smaller). The most important thing is to make sure that all surfaces are clean (ie get rid of all old paste from the cpu) and dry before you install the new thermal paste. For the latter I used the "strip" method ie a thin 1 - 1.5 cm line of thermal paste on the cpu (starting in the region of the main cpu cores) and then seating the cooler on top without any spreading and that worked well. I hasten to add there are are other methods that include spreading that also work equally well. Just don't apply too much!!It is worth a search on YouTube for your particular cooler installation as there are some great videos that show you how to do it without tears.Good luckPeterH

[MrBenevolent 0]

Annoyingly enough, this is the one flaw with my otherwise excellent Coolermaster HFX case/P8P67 Deluxe combo; Although I have a huge access panel on the back of the case that allows one to theoretically remove the cooler without un-mounting the MoBo, the panel is actually in the wrong place for my board and I can only access two of the 4 clips/screws.Grrr.As an aside, my preferred method of applying the paste (after trying a fair few!) is to put a small pea sized blob on the CPU and use an index finger wrapped in clingfilm/gladwrap to evenly spread it over the surface.

[brucek 38]

Thanks do much for the replies. I do have Arctic Silver and also done solution to remove previous compounds from the CPU, do hopefully that will work. And thanks for the reminder on the positioning of the heat exchanger and making it inflow into the case.Bruce