Step 2

The cpu, once the motherboard is in take your cpu and look at the corners to find an arrow. Now look at your cpu slot on the mobo and it will have an arrow as well in one of the corners. When installing the Cpu make sure those two arrows match up and are in the same corners, thats how you know you put it in the right way. First of lift the latch up from the cpu slot on the mobo this allows the cpu to be inserted. Next install the cpu in the slot and put a drop of thermal paste on it, use a credit card to create a nice even layer across the cpu. This can be done before or after the cpu is installed but i believe its much easier to do it before so that you have more room to work with. Once the cpu is installed push the latch back down again.

So at this point you have the cpu installed and it has thermal paste on it, the next thing to do is mount the heat sink. Basically lift the heat sink up and set it on the Cpu but make sure its in the middle and the bracket that you have to screw the heat sink in will help you with that. The heat sink screws have to line up with the bracket, this kinda helps you out in making sure that the heat sink is mounted in the middle. Also while doing this concentrate on the heat sink cable and make sure its on the right side so that it reaches the Cpu fan plug on the Motherboard.

A few tips, if you bought an aftermarket heat sink some of them come with back plates that need to be installed on the back side of the motherboard. In that case you will have to install the Cpu and heatsink before you put the Mobo inside the case unless the case has an opening on the back panel for it to be installed. Last thing if the heat sink is big, make sure to install your ram first as sometimes the heat sink will block the ram slots and you will have to do everything over again.

In this picture the latch is up, and the cpu is being installed.

As we see the Cpu has been installed and the latch is now down securing it in place. The thermal paste is on, and the heat sink is ready to be put on. Keep in mind i did not have any thermal paste so the one thats on it right now is the old one and dried up. Yours will look nice and smooth.

The heat sink has been successfully installed and is fastened by screws that go into the bracket. The bracket is the black plastic around the cpu as seen in previous pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lastly the fan cable has been pluged into the Mobo. If you made it this far Good Job as you see its like putting legos together. Everything pops into place.

Link to Step 3 https://kzkomputers.wordpress.com/2011/01/18/step-3/