Installation

To install the Danger Den MC-TDX the motherboard needs to be completely removed from the case.


Danger Den uses the same mounting hardware for the MC-TDX as their other models of CPU blocks, which consists of stainless steel threaded rods, springs and nuts, nylon washers and brass thumb screws. The first picture above shows the order in which these parts will be applied to the threaded rod, shown from left to right. To start, a nut is screwed onto the end of each rod, and a nylon washer slides over that. From the back of the motherboard the rods are inserted through the mounting holes.


Next, another nylon washer goes over each threaded rod, followed by the second nut. At this point all the nuts need to be secured tightly, or else they will come loose when removing the block later on. I used a 5/16" socket driver on the bottom of the board and a 5/16" wrench on the top of the board, being sure not to over tighten the assembly.


It is a good idea to check the placement of the block and look for any interference with surrounding components. The ideal position for the MC-TDX would be to have the outlet barb in the highest position to assist with air removal from the loop, but in the case of the Asus P5W-DH Deluxe shown here, there are capacitors above the socket that prevented the block from making proper contact with the CPU heatspreader. Instead, the block was turned 90 degrees with the outlet barb toward the back of the motherboard.


Once the proper orientation of the block is decided upon, the installation can continue with four more nylon washers placed on top of the acrylic top over the threaded rods. Then the springs, the last nylon washers and the brass thumbscrews can be added and tightened. I tightened the thumbscrews until the springs were completely compressed, making sure not to go too far or else the top and the motherboard would start to warp. Due to the amount of pressure that can be applied here, I would prefer to see some kind of backplate used to help prevent some of the warping that can happen. However, there are backplates out there that can be purchased separately if the user desires.


With the hardware tightened it was time to take one more look around the socket and look for clearance issues. The outlet side of the MC-TDX fit nicely between two of the capacitors at the rear of the motherboard, and the entire assembly took up little more room than the CPU socket itself.


To check the contact of the base with the CPU, I applied some Tuniq TX-2 thermal compound in a line across the cores of the E6850 CPU. With the block removed the compound had spread evenly and made a suction effect when trying to remove the block. The picture of the base of the MC-TDX shows how much larger it is compared to the heatspreader on the Intel CPU.

At this point, the CPU and the waterblock were cleaned to remove the thermal paste, and the watercooling loop was assembled, filled and leak tested.