Installation
OK, I’m not going to beat around the bush here, this cooler was a bloody nightmare to install. It’s not a bad mounting kit, if anything it’s very secure, but there are many easier ways to do this. Let’s get started.
The universal backplate goes on the back of the motherboard, but you’ll need to put through four long screws, then fit each one by screwing a bolt and a washer on each screw, which takes a few minutes, but not too tricky.
On the other side, you need to do the same again, four more washers and four more bolts down each of the long screws. This isn’t hard, but it can be a little time-consuming.
You’ll then need to use two screws to fit the appropriate bracket around the CPU block. Never fitted one quite like this before, and it’s a little fiddly to install.
Now for the headache. I feel like I’m missing something here, but there’s a little spanner to bolt the cooler over the CPU, but there’s no room to move it due to the RAM and other hardware. I tried to remove the fans, that means taking the top cover off. The fans are all wired into the top panel and through the cooler, so I couldn’t really get them out of the way, which is why one is on the motherboard, the other is hanging off to the side. At least this way I could reach the screws much easier and I finally got it installed.
The cooler is back in place, and there’s no sign of the madness now. It took about ten minutes to do, which isn’t the worst, but again I think there’s room for improvement in future models.
No issues with RAM clearance here, as the fan sits just slightly behind the modules.
Plenty of clearance around the back too, so no issues there.
Remember all that moaning about installing it? All is forgotten now, because it has this stunning RGB module on the top which is controlled via USB. It’s only a little touch, but it adds to the aesthetics in a big way, and is sure to appeal to those who love system lighting and customisation. Pictures speak a 1000 words, so enjoy the gallery then move onto the test results.
Many PC enthusiasts are starting to understand that AIO / CLCs have a lot of negatives and few positive. A quality HSF offers incomparable reliability and almost silent cooling with a well engineered tower style cooler. These high end tower coolers not only perform better than similar priced or even more expensive AIO / CLCs, the tower coolers are often more quiet and they never leak coolant to damage mobos, GPUs and other hardware. This Gigabyte HSF is on the top of my list for a new Ryzen 7 1800X AM4 build.