Tightness of CPU mounting bolts

[Edd]

How tight (as a rough guide) should the CPU blocks be tightened on?
My temps are fine, but I'm wondering whether the block could be making even better contact with the CPU. Currently the round tightning bolts are only just screwed on. Obviously the easiest way to check is to keep tightning until I hear a crunch :D, but I quite like my little 1700+ and don't really want a new processor just yet!!

So should I just run by how good my temps are, or is there some kind of rule where each mounting point can be tightened by a half inch or something?

[Kickass]

i am not an expert but i get rather decent temps (aparently) and they are just tightened hand tightness (until i start to struggle, like a jam jar lid) and i havent heard the crunch yet

[Edd]

Ah right, sounds like mine can go a bit tighter then. It's just I'll be dismantling everything in a fortnight to finish modding the case and when I put it back together I want to make sure it's all rock solid :)

[Kickass]

please dont blame me if im wrong LOL

[adwhitworth]

The Cathar White Water blocks recommended 15 turns of the nuts for proper compression. I always did 10. By the 11 the board was like a banana.

[mrplow]

I tighten them until I can feel real resistance. I guess it's just a case of how brave you wanna be, in my case not very :lol:

[Kickass]

i cant afford to replace 2 x 2gig athlons

[Pug]

Oops, sorry. Missed this post till now.

By memory Edd, you have a Cuplex block. One thing I love bout AC blocks is the quality of the springs they use.
With many other blocks, if you tighten the springs to full compression, they will distort and not keep an even pressure.
AC blocks & springs, on the other hand, can take the approach outlined by D-K & MrPlow.

The way I tend to do it is to bring all the thumbnuts down to the tops of the springs and progressively work my way down using half a turn on a diagonally opposite pair, then moving to the other pair and so on, alternating as you go until the spring compresses to the point that you feel the resistance like a jar lid (good analogy that, I'll have to remember it :)).

Make sure the nuts holding it through the mobo are tight mind, as it can be a pain if the bolt spins when you're doing the thumbnuts up.