Heatsink Slightly Off Center - OK?

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.


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akimeso
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akimeso wrote:
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.

Thanks Bill and Roy.


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akimeso
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