Installation
Taking the parts out of the white box you will find two manuals, a mounting plate, the top mounting plate and a bag of accessories.
Inside the bag Cooler Master included the needed supplies for attaching a second fan, a resisted 4 pin fan connector for damping down the noise level of your fan, thermal grease, and mounting hardware. One unique item is the included nut driver meant to be used with a screwdriver, very nice.
Following the instructions, you are going to want to first remove the fan from the heatsink. This is done by simply bending back slightly one side of the clips and pulling the fan off forward. With the fan off you will have easy access to the screws to attach the cooler to the mounting bracket.
Now we attach the mounting bracket to the back of the motherboard with the nuts and oversized mounting stand-offs.
Once you get them all started go back through in a cross pattern using the “Nut setter” provided by Cooler Master and a Philips head screwdriver tightening the screws the rest of the way.
Now that the stand-offs are installed set the screws on the retention plate (shaped like an X) to the correct hole for your socket. These have a clever spring loaded retention mechanism. Once set push ends of the X together to make the plate narrow enough to fit through the bottom of the cooler.
Once in place spread the plate back into an X. The plate itself notches into a hole and post on the block and lightly locks into place.
Next you will want to take the included thermal grease and apply it to the CPU. I use the grain of rice method for this cooler.
Now simply press the cooler into place on the CPU and attach it to the stand-offs with your Philips screwdriver.
The final step is to simply attach the fan and plug it into the motherboard CPU_FAN header.
