Heatsink Slightly Off Center - OK?

[akimeso]

I just installed an Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro heatsink/fan on m
socket 939 Opteron 165 which is in an Asus A8N32-SLI Delux
motherboard, but the heatsink seems to be resting on the core jus
slightly off center, maybe by 2 or 3 millimeters. Basically, one sid
of the copper on the heat sink is a millimeter from the edge of the th
core (the video card side), while the opposite side (near the top of th
case) has quite a bit more space not covered by the copper of the hea
sink. Is this normal?

Are heatsinks supposed to rest on the core dead center or is a sligh
off center position not a big deal? If it is off center will it no
perform as well, or worse, damage the cpu?

Thanks for any insight anyone can provide

 

[roy]

I just installed an Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro heatsink/fan on my
socket 939 Opteron 165 which is in an Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe
motherboard, but the heatsink seems to be resting on the core just
slightly off center, maybe by 2 or 3 millimeters. Basically, one side
of the copper on the heat sink is a millimeter from the edge of the the
core (the video card side), while the opposite side (near the top of the
case) has quite a bit more space not covered by the copper of the heat
sink. Is this normal?

Are heatsinks supposed to rest on the core dead center or is a slight
off center position not a big deal? If it is off center will it not
perform as well, or worse, damage the cpu?

Thanks for any insight anyone can provide.

I get lost in technical specs for computer components, but I am an
engineer, and heat tranfer is not a foriegn language.

should the outer edge of a CPU get warm? not known to me. BUT if a
milimeter or two uncovered (without direct contact) to the heat sink is
a problem, then things must be a lot hotter than I would assume.

I would be more concerned with a MFG who was so careless with their
tolerances.

 

[Bill]

I just installed an Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro heatsink/fan on my
socket 939 Opteron 165 which is in an Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe
motherboard, but the heatsink seems to be resting on the core just
slightly off center, maybe by 2 or 3 millimeters. Basically, one side
of the copper on the heat sink is a millimeter from the edge of the the
core (the video card side), while the opposite side (near the top of the
case) has quite a bit more space not covered by the copper of the heat
sink. Is this normal?

I believe it is. I've seen images of the Freezer 64 Pro and it appears
the heatsink contact plate is offset slightly to make room for the
retention clip.

A few millimeters might just be "slop" in the retention clip as well. A
few centimeters I would worry about, but not a few millimeters.

Are heatsinks supposed to rest on the core dead center or is a slight
off center position not a big deal? If it is off center will it not
perform as well, or worse, damage the cpu?

I doubt it will have any effect on performance.

Too much or too little thermal paste would likely have a bigger effect
on thermal performance, but even that would only be a 1-2c. Not enough
to worry about.

 

[akimeso]

Thanks Bill and Roy