Installation Tips

ThermoLab BARAM supports LGA775 and Socket AM2(+) mainboards. The cooler is installed on both these platforms with the retention plates attached with crews to its base:

Socket AM2
 

LGA 775
 

Then you need to install the cooler onto the board. Unfortunately, installation onto an LGA775 platform is very complicated, because the cooler is attached to the corresponding backplate through the mainboard PCB, but the screws need to be tightened on the other side of the board. In other words, you have to turn the cooler upside down (somehow hold it in place), put the mainboard on top of it, place the backplate to the corresponding holes, insert and tighten the screws:

It is a very hard task for one man, although I did succeed by holding the cooler between my knees :) I have no idea why they couldn’t mount the screw-nuts into the backplate and let us tighten the screws from the top rather than bottom of the PCB. It is even more puzzling, because the cooelr is installed very conveniently on top of the board on Socket AM2:

ThermoLab BARAM installed onto the board will not interfere with any components around the CPU socket and tall heatsinks on the chipset and voltage regulator, even though the heatpipes run very close to them:

Take a look at the red washers that I managed to put beneath the steel retention plates while holding the cooler between my legs. They are not included with the accessories; however, I didn’t like the idea of direct contact between the steel retention plates and the mainboard textolite. In other words, LGA775 retention needs to be finished off. Here I also have to add that the distance from the mainboard surface to the lowest heatsink plate of the cooler is 46 mm.

ThermoLab BARAM looks as follows insdie a system case:

As you see, even with a fan attached to it, the cooler doesn’t interfere with the tall memory heat-spreaders. You can easily add a second fan to the opposite side of the heatsink, if you wish.