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Installation |
I gathered the screws together and decided to mount the fans in place.
I realized, “damn, these fans are too big.” Nowhere in
the instructions did it talk about the fan installation, but on the
back of the HeatSink box it said 70-80mm fan adapters were included.
I shuffled around in the mess and started matching up parts. I really
wished the instructions were more detailed at this point, because
I wasn’t sure which screws went where. By process of elimination,
I found the right screws and figured out how to mount the adapters.
After the Fan adapters were in place, the HeatSink was ready for the
fans to be added.
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The fan installation was a little tricky. I did not want to bend and
mangle the fan mounts, but the holes were not exactly the correct
size. After a little struggle I got both fans installed. The beast
is together, and with both fans this baby has a massive wingspan.
I hope “Bigger is Better”!
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I was excited to review this Heat Sink primarily for the unique design.
I do not overclock so I mostly wanted the DP-102 for its looks. On
the downside, I have an Intel and realized that this would require
tearing my entire machine apart and removing my motherboard to mount
this badboy. (The AMD version does not require removal of the motherboard).
After close inspection and measuring, I sadly came to the conclusion
that this Heat Sink would not work with my current setup. My DeceptiMod
has a Soyo Dragon 2 board and the Heat Sink is too large for this
board. The northbridge interferes with the mounting in one direction
and the Ram and capacitors in the other (See
my Soyo). Due to the large size of this Heat Sink, AeroCool made
the base so that you can rotate the position of the unit (I will show
this closer at the end of the review). Unfortunately, the ability
to rotate the base did not help with the Soyo board.
I was a bit disappointed but I moved on to finding
another PC. One of the Grunts, G-dawg, has a MSI 845PE Max2-FIR
board and Intel P4 2.66ghz proc in a ThunderCats-themed CoolerMaster
case.
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I thought the aluminum fans would look awesome through the window.
We measured the MSI and it looked like a tight fit, but we figured
it was OK.
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The inside of G-dawg’s case was clean, leading to an easy removal
of the motherboard. After removing the old HSF, we set the proc aside
(to make sure it would fit before we actually installed it) and removed
the black mounting bracket. This Heat Sink will be mounted directly
to the board. AeroCool didn’t include instructions on how to
install this Heat Sink directly to the motherboard, so it was time
for more trial and error.
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Looking good and almost there…NOT. As I put the DP-102 in place,
it would not sit correctly. Only by a tiny bit, the northbridge was
in the way of mounting the Heat Sink. We decided to turn the entire
Heat Sink, and we were in luck. It sat perfectly on the board. Just
when we thought it was clear, G-dawg noticed that the ATX connector
was under the Heat Sink. No go….again.
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At this point, I have to say I was frustrated with the damn DP-102.
I was about to give up and take the silly thing over to GruntmaN’s
house when I had another volunteer. G-dawg’s roommate, Otsuka,
said he would like to try mounting the HSF in his case. I handed it
over and told him to call me when it was done.
After a few hours of attempted installing and uninstalling
on his Epox 4-BEAV with a P4 Overclocked at 3.2 ghz, Otsuka reported
that there were no mounting screws included. Not giving up, he ran
to HomeDepot with his mobo. Sometime in the middle of the night,
the HSF was successfully installed on the Epox board.
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When Otsuka was installing the mobo back into his case, he realized
it was going to hit the edge of the ATX connector. AGHHH. Removing
the mobo again, he rotated the Heat Sink just a little and mounted
it again. Finally the AeroCool DP-102 was installed!!! |
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| CONTENTS |
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