Reports Suggest AMD Ryzen Heatsink Pressure Problem

There was bound to be a hiccup somewhere in the Ryzen launch as such a large even rarely goes by without. According to a recent post, the included backplate for the Ryzen motherboards could pose possible trouble with stock coolers.

It was discovered that backplates provided by some major, but unnamed, motherboard manufacturers could pose pressure issues with the stock heatsink and coolers. It was discovered that there weren’t all equally long which could result in too much or insufficient pressure on the cooler mount. The article states that the issue was due to miscommunication between AMD and the manufacturers as they only got specifications for mounting holes and not for the screw holders.

As it is pictured here, we can certainly see that there could be an issue – but so far it’s unconfirmed by other sources.

In a statement an AMD representative said: “Our cooler works well and we have shared the platform design guide with NDA partners that includes the clamping force required to correctly mount coolers on the AM4 platform.”

While the above-mentioned situation could pose trouble for stock coolers, it won’t be an issue for after-market third-party coolers which come with their own backplates. These are designed to meet the right criteria and will mount perfectly the way they’re meant to.

If there truly is a problem here, I’m sure that motherboard manufacturers will be quick to update the backplate in their packages and send out replacements to anyone that pre-ordered affected boards and receive them later today when the new AMD Ryzen finally arrives.

Either way, if you pre-ordered a Ryzen CPU and plan to use the stock cooler or motherboard included cooler backplate, then you might want to have an extra eye on the situation while you screw the cooler into the screw holders.