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Corsair H80i needs backplate washers


AndreiD

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Hi! About a week ago I got myself the new Corsair H80i closed loop water cooling system, and after I first installed it, I have to say I wasn't really that much impressed with it. I was upgrading from a Hyper 212 Evo+ and I barely noticed a couple of degree performance improvement, so I was somewhat disappointed.

My idle temps were: 37 35 35 34 (per core)

And my load temps were: 72 72 74 68 (IBT 5 pass into Prime 95)

Processor details: i7 2600K - 4020 Mhz @ 1.28v - LLC: Medium

Radiator setup: 2x 1200rpm cheap fans in push-pull, exhaust

 

Since I kept seeing reviews on the internet with the H80i doing much better, I started looking for the cause of my temperatures, and I seem to have found the issue.

The problem seems to be the backplate. There are numerous reports of the backplate being loose, and that seems to be an issue as not enough pressure is put onto the CPU, so the thermal transfer suffers. I noticed this after I applied some thermal grease (Arctic Silver 5), as it did spread, but it seemed there wasn't such good contact (I remember the way my Hyper 212 Evo+ spread the compound). It seems that the LGA1155/1156 double headed screws they supply are too long for some motherboard set ups, and there is need for washers to be placed on the backplate screw holes, behind the motherboard.

http://i.imgur.com/HzxIK.png

So I installed a set of rubber washers I had from a fan (the backplate would still be a little loose, but FAR from what it is without the washers) and re-mounted the H80i.

 

I redid the tests, the CPU was in the same conditions, the room temperature was the same!

Idle: 32 30 30 30

Load: 56 59 62 58

What a difference! And bare in mind, this is with a set of fans which have very poor static pressure and move a small to moderate amount of air (1200 rpm Fractal Silent 120mm fans) in a pretty poorly ventilated case.

That's more than 10 degree celsius difference in load, just because of the better contact.

The motherboard used is a mITX Asus P8Z77-I Deluxe.

 

So if you're having H80i temperature issues and when you installed it, you noticed that the backplate was very loose after you tightened up the double headed screws, you should give this a shot.

 

NOTE: This might just be an issue with select motherboards, since for some users the screws fit snugly.

NOTE: The included metal washers will not fit the screw holes, you need plastic/rubber ones.

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  • Corsair Employee
NOTE: This might just be an issue with select motherboards, since for some users the screws fit snugly.

 

I was going to mention this, because not all MB thickness are the same. But in most cases, when you just put the standoffs on to the back plate, backplate is going to be wobbly and that is given but once the pump is secure, that is when screws pulls the back plate against the back of the MB making the pump/coldplate secure on top of the CPU. In your case, since you have a mITX board, the board is probably thinner creating a fraction of a gap between CPU and coldplate and may need a washer to make a good and solid contact.

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  • 2 months later...
I got one of the boxes that said 8 washers (for mounting the fans to the rad) but only came with 4 - luckily I did not need the last 4 as I had a protecting fan grid that needed to be fitted using the supplied long screws fans.. just saying at that price someone ought to be able to put the right amount of washers in the case....
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I'm using a asrock B75M DGS, and my backplate is rather loose. how would I know the required thickness of the washers? Thanks!

 

That is normal, once you have put in the pump on top of the CPU and you'll notice how the 4 thumbscrews will pull the backplate against the back of the motherboard securing the pump and making the backplate tight.

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Mount the pump. the backplate should tighten.

 

That is normal, once you have put in the pump on top of the CPU and you'll notice how the 4 thumbscrews will pull the backplate against the back of the motherboard securing the pump and making the backplate tight.
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  • 4 weeks later...

got an asus p8z77-v lx

 

backplate is on, screws are on tight and the backplate is loose

 

even if the pump was at max tightness on the other side of the hexagonal spacer, the spacer will stop it being tight

 

just found a bag with 8 rubber washers, does not seem to be from the case -650d, fitted them and the back plate is secure....

 

will do a post and probably a blog, great bits of kit, but no useful instructions

 

having to use google and it seems most people have the same issues

 

I will probably end up writing a blog on it :)

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got an asus p8z77-v lx

 

backplate is on, screws are on tight and the backplate is loose

 

even if the pump was at max tightness on the other side of the hexagonal spacer, the spacer will stop it being tight

 

just found a bag with 8 rubber washers, does not seem to be from the case -650d, fitted them and the back plate is secure....

 

will do a post and probably a blog, great bits of kit, but no useful instructions

 

having to use google and it seems most people have the same issues

 

I will probably end up writing a blog on it :)

 

I had the same issue with the P8Z77-I, it did tighten up a bit once the thumbscrews were on but it still looked like the block was hovering above the heatspreader. Put 4 neoprene washer on the back plate and now everything tightens down correctly.

 

However not everyone should do this, as RAMGUY said normal mechanical action should secure the backplate as you tighten the thumbscrews. If you add washers when they aren't needed you could actually decrease the mounting pressure of the cooler on the cpu, the opposite of what you want.

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I am wondering about this too. This is what my H80i looks like after all thumbscrews have been tightened up - there are noticeable gaps between

the board and the standoff screws. Is that how it's supposed to look when you're done?

 

attachment.php?attachmentid=12476&stc=1&d=1365532294

 

attachment.php?attachmentid=12477&stc=1&d=1365532313

101299_an.thumb.png.3e9b0092efe959adca40d87abff0ed27.png

101303_an.thumb.png.410b5de66f9b7132f1a607984a700f24.png

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Haylee, it will differ from board to board. If you notice the ends of the screws are tapered and thats where you see a "gap" But it is actually sitting on the MB.

 

If the cooling block is tight and your temps are where they should be, there is no need to worry about it.

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Is the pump moving after all 4 screws secured? I wouldn't base the proper installation by looking at those gaps, as those can vary from one board to another, I'd rather check the pump's placement. Is the pump moving? is there a little play after the pump is secured? temp on idle and load.. these are the things that I would check and good basis if the cooler is properly installed. IF there are no movements, then that is a good install.
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i also found the back plate really loose

 

found 8 rubber washers about 3-4 mm thick, not sure what bag they came from, but 4 underneath really helped, just checked the screws bag and only used 4

 

the pump is fitted rock solid and temperatures are 23C under no load, like browsing the net

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I also had this issue.

Got about 35C at idle

70-75C after 1 minute with Prime

 

after I installed 4 rubber washers, my temps are now:

Idle: 25-27C

5 minutes with prime: 40-45C

 

Before installing thoose, the thermal pasta was only on about 15% of my cpu.

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Is the pump moving after all 4 screws secured? I wouldn't base the proper installation by looking at those gaps, as those can vary from one board to another, I'd rather check the pump's placement. Is the pump moving? is there a little play after the pump is secured? temp on idle and load.. these are the things that I would check and good basis if the cooler is properly installed. IF there are no movements, then that is a good install.

 

I'd go with RAM Guy's advice here - if the pump is sitting firmly on top of the CPU and isn't moving after you've secured all four screws, things are most likely as they should be.

 

The reason I brought up the little gaps between the standoffs and the motherboard is because I noticed that there was a little more play after the pump was secured in place than I would have liked to see. Those gaps are fine - you don't want the hex part of the standoffs to actually make contact with the motherboard. However, the thick tubing of the H80i can move the pump sideways (away from the radiator) and/or outwards if there's some play even after the pump was completely installed, and that's what I saw happening in my case. The back plate can't move anyway because it's held in place by the plastic grommets that make contact with the back side of the motherboard, so I wouldn't worry about that.

 

I added four small size M4 plastic washers between the back plate and the motherboard, and that pulled the standoffs back just enough to make the pump assembly sit just a little more tightly on top of the CPU; no more side-slipping after the screws were in place. As an added bonus, temps also went down by a small amount (3-4° C) under load.

 

N.B. If you decide to re-seat your pump, always remove the old thermal paste completely before applying the new one. I used Noctua's NT-H1 and I'm happy with it.

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I'd go with RAM Guy's advice here

 

 

I think the real issue is there are so many heatsinks outhere with easy to install backplates?

 

Why does corsair's have to be so troublesome?

 

Its not rocket science, if the standoff screw was able to thread futher into the backplate washer, the backplate would have no issues(and would retain similar force application between mother

 

 

I just don't understand.

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  • 1 month later...

I'm glad I came across this thread while waiting on the H80i to arrive. When I installed it yesterday, I noticed the gaps you mentioned on my ASUS Sabertooth Z77. I used rubber HD washers on the back plate for a snug fit.

 

Idle temps are 1 to 7 degrees Celsius above my ambient room temps. :biggrin:

 

Under 100% CPU load the core temps average 37 degrees above ambient room temps :cool:

 

I'm very satisfied with the H80i.

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  • 6 months later...
I'm glad I came across this thread .

 

Printed circuit boards are 1.7 mm thick and at max 1.75 mm tolerance-wise. (+/- 0.15 mm) neglecting 1 oz Cu (0.7 mm)

 

The plastic protrusion of the backplate screw receptacle is 4 mm above the plastic washer.

 

When inserted into a pcb of max tolerance there would be 2.25 mm of the plastic receptacle standing above the top of the pcb. For pcb of min tolerance some 2.55 mm would stand above the top of the pcb. This assumes the screw receptacle is flush with the bottom of the pcb.

 

The mounting plate is bowed downwards presumably to pull the heatsink down catering for pcb tolerance.

 

The bow is 1.25 mm measured from the centre of the bottom bracket.

 

It can never pull the heatsink flush with the top of the processor with this design.

 

The bow must be at least 2.55 mm and if so would stress mounting for pcbs of minimum thickness tolerance and possibly break the plastic screw receptacle. Check my measurements, perhaps I am wrong?

 

By using a rubber washer, 4 mm dia, 2 mm thick, under the existing plastic washer, the bow would be increased to cater for the pcb tolerances where the existing design cannot.

 

I'm just starting my build and there are so many anomalies with the H80i. For example where does it say the USB used for it must be USB 2? What direction is the airflow from the fans? (Out of the cable-entry?) Should the water pipes be vertical or horizontal? Should the radiator or the heatsink be mounted first? (IMHO the heatsink to stop the waterpipes from pushing against the heat sink as the latter is being screwed down.) Tapping Al of small thickness is not a good engineering methodology (the radiator).

 

I'm just starting my build but I'm glad I researched this and a lot of other deficiencies of 'Modern' manufacture.

 

However, the packing of the H80i is magnificent. Took me some time to work-out how to open it!

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  • 7 months later...
Hi! About a week ago I got myself the new Corsair H80i closed loop water cooling system, and after I first installed it, I have to say I wasn't really that much impressed with it. I was upgrading from a Hyper 212 Evo+ and I barely noticed a couple of degree performance improvement, so I was somewhat disappointed.

My idle temps were: 37 35 35 34 (per core)

And my load temps were: 72 72 74 68 (IBT 5 pass into Prime 95)

Processor details: i7 2600K - 4020 Mhz @ 1.28v - LLC: Medium

Radiator setup: 2x 1200rpm cheap fans in push-pull, exhaust

 

Since I kept seeing reviews on the internet with the H80i doing much better, I started looking for the cause of my temperatures, and I seem to have found the issue.

The problem seems to be the backplate. There are numerous reports of the backplate being loose, and that seems to be an issue as not enough pressure is put onto the CPU, so the thermal transfer suffers. I noticed this after I applied some thermal grease (Arctic Silver 5), as it did spread, but it seemed there wasn't such good contact (I remember the way my Hyper 212 Evo+ spread the compound). It seems that the LGA1155/1156 double headed screws they supply are too long for some motherboard set ups, and there is need for washers to be placed on the backplate screw holes, behind the motherboard.

http://i.imgur.com/HzxIK.png

So I installed a set of rubber washers I had from a fan (the backplate would still be a little loose, but FAR from what it is without the washers) and re-mounted the H80i.

 

I redid the tests, the CPU was in the same conditions, the room temperature was the same!

Idle: 32 30 30 30

Load: 56 59 62 58

What a difference! And bare in mind, this is with a set of fans which have very poor static pressure and move a small to moderate amount of air (1200 rpm Fractal Silent 120mm fans) in a pretty poorly ventilated case.

That's more than 10 degree celsius difference in load, just because of the better contact.

The motherboard used is a mITX Asus P8Z77-I Deluxe.

 

So if you're having H80i temperature issues and when you installed it, you noticed that the backplate was very loose after you tightened up the double headed screws, you should give this a shot.

 

NOTE: This might just be an issue with select motherboards, since for some users the screws fit snugly.

NOTE: The included metal washers will not fit the screw holes, you need plastic/rubber ones.

 

YOU ARE A SAINT!!!! Man am I glad to have come accross this post...

 

While installing the h80i I noticed the backplate was rather loose, but after installing the pump everything felt and looked very tight, so I went ahead and did some stress testing. The results were terrible: idle temperature was somewhat acceptable but under stress it went up horribly fast (75-80ºC). :confused:

 

After that I checked everything: I thought maybe the orientation of the tubes was not right (I had put it upside down, small motherboard, thought it wouldn't fit next to my graphics card), or maybe it didn't have enough thermal paste on it. After the second, third and fourth tests the results were still pretty bad and I was already considering returning it :veryangry until I tried your solution. WORKED LIKE A CHARM! :sunglasse (45ºC under Prime95 torture test) The washers did the trick. They should definitely include them in the box/instructions for these cases.

 

If you're gonna try this solution please use rubber washers or your mobo will probably short circuit. If you don't have rubber washers remove the rubber ones that come with the backplate, place your washers and then put the rubber ones back on top. ;): You'll know you've placed enough washers when -after fully tightening the double ended screws- the grips are touching the motherboard (on the other side of the backplate).

 

Note: I'm using a Gigabyte z77m-d3h motherboard.

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First off, THANK YOU!!! for this post. Once I found this post I knew it wasn't just me. I'm attempting to assemble a new system with a Corsair 600T case and H80i cooler. The motherboard is an Asus Z97 deluxe. I was able to find some small hard rubber washers at the HW store which fixed my pump mount slop and I also had to buy 4 longer screws so I could mount the stock fan/radiator to the back of the case. The ones supplies were flush with the edge of the the stock fan supplied. I must admit I was more than a bit miffed about having to purchase extra HW (2 trips to the HW store) to install this thing but it's mounted just fine now.
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  • 1 month later...
Glad the tip helped people out, would also like to provide an additional tip I learned after a few installations, be careful with the radiator screw slots, because they strip easily if you tighten too hard or screw and unscrew several times.
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