[SOLVED] CFU fan so tight PC won't work

[Zealiance]

So after troubleshooting my PC for two days. I finally figured out that the reason my PC wouldn't run with 2 sticks of RAM (would with one) is because the Wraith Prism RGB cooler is on too tight. There's a latch that fully clips it in place and keeps it secure which is nice, however it turns out my PC won't run with it in the latched position. Im worried if I don't have it latched, if it being a tiny bit loose could have cooling issues. It's still hooked on both sides as a fan would normally but with a very slight wiggle.

I have a be quiet! Shadow Rock LP 130W from my old processor, if anything I think I could just switch to that.

 

[Karadjgne]

I've seen people use zip ties, hot glue, tape of every kind even double sided stuff, velcro and other ways to attach fans to heatsinks of all shapes and sizes. None of which affects the performance of the fan/heatsink. As long as the fan is secure and not planning on falling off the heatsink, you are good. It's not going to hurt at all if it's a hair loose.

The 130w shadow LP is at the same potential as the Wraith, if not a little worse in ability and a little better on noise. It's only issue being a lack of AM4 mount unless it's a recent purchase.

 

[Nemesia]

Unfortunately the OP is not talking about the fan on the CPU cooler. The latch that clip the CPU cooler to the brackets on the motherboard is what the OP is talking about. Too much pressure on the CPU making the memory controller freak out and rendering 1 RAM slot useless.

 

[Karadjgne]

It's still hooked on both sides as a fan would normally but with a very slight wiggle.

That gets a little confusing.

But even so, the cooler itself should be snug, not overly tight, or you'll get a shift of the cpu when you latch the first side down. The AM4 retention is multipurpose, I believe one set of holes is for the larger heatsinks like the Prism, and the other for the slimmer heatsinks like the Stealth. And there will be a slight amount of twisting wiggle room, but not a side to side rocking as that's too loose.

Airflow heatsinks only need to make decent contact, higher pressure does nothing, the only thing that does is aio pumps because the area containing the microfin array is centered above the IHS, which has a bad habit of being concurve on many heatsinks, so loses efficiency. Air heatsink bases are will spread the heat over most of the base instead.