Question Need help with CPU cooler installation

[predattak]

Hello beautiful community, i have e problem i hope you can help me with.
I built a new pc and i'm at the part where i need to tighten the cpu cooler on my cpu.
How hard should i tighten it? I looked on web and the answers are quite vague and as usual in 10 answers you find 10 different opinions.
Some say if you tighten is well you will bend the CPU pins and other stuff, others say that if you don't you will fry the cpu etc .. it's crazy, i need somebody who knows what he's doing to give me an answer before i have a stroke..
My socket is AM5

My Hardware:
Motherboard: B 650 X AX v2
Cooler: Corsair icue h115i elite capellix
CPU: ( in case it matters) Risen 7 7800 X3d


(note for the moderators, please forgive me if i posted in the wrong section, i had no idea since i'm new here)

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

How hard should i tighten it?
Finger tight, you don't need to tighten all the way down, just enough to prevent the block from coming off the mounting hooks/latches. if you're using a screw driver, then perform gentle clockwise turns.

You just need to make sure that the cooling block is making contact with the CPU's IHS.

Moved thread from Components section to Cooling section.

 

[Joe_182]

You want the cooling block secured to the CPU. Which means turning the screw until you can't without absolutely having to death grip the screw.

If for some reason it isn't tight enough, you would know by running HWmonitor or any other temp monitoring app to check what the CPU temp is doing. Can even see the CPU temp in your bios. If it's super high or unstable (Spiking up and down) it's likely not secured correctly.

It's easy to overthink the little things, I remember being paranoid years ago about how much thermal paste to use and how to apply. Nowadays nobody cares lol Just screw until it feels right and don't overdo it. Test your temps and go from there.

 

[Syntaximus]

Yep, gentle turns w/ a driver until you feel it get snug, quarter turn more for good measure, that's it.

Go in an x-pattern with the screws as well, it will help evenly distribute pressure.
I tend to go about half-way on each first, then again in the same pattern to finish things up.

 

[predattak]

Thank you so much for the responses guys, now i can sleep well at night😆

 

[geofelt]

When tightening a cooler, do so in a criss cross pattern, a little bit at a time so the cooler sets evenly on the processor.
Snug, not tight might be the best description.