Installation

When installing the AK400, I was a bit disappointed with the mounting hardware. It isn't terrible by any stretch, but isn't nearly as easy to work with as the AK620. To start, you will need to remove the plastic AM4 brackets on the motherboard but keep the backplate handy. Next, you need to use the orange spacers and proper AMD screws to secure the mounting bracket to the backplate. Proper standoffs would have been a much better option. The easiest method if you are installing the cooler on a motherboard that is already mounted to the case is to screw the bottom two screws into the backplate with the spacers. Leave a little wiggle room to then use them to support the bracket while placing the screws and spacers into the top cutouts. You can move the bracket close to the motherboard and secure it. It takes a bit of fiddling but will go together without too much trouble. Once you get the mounting bracket in place, you can apply the thermal paste of your choice, or skip to the next step if using the pre-applied paste.


Securing the heatsink to the mounting bracket is quick and simple. Line the screws on the cooler up with the threads on the mounting bracket and alternate between the two to secure it. With the heatsink installed, you can install the fan and plug it into the CPU fan header. At that point, you are good to go.

Overall, the mounting hardware DeepCool uses for the AK400 is fine. While it is not the worst mounting hardware setup I have dealt with, it still leaves much to be desired. Thankfully, since the design is so simple, the number of miscellaneous parts is kept to a minimum. That said, the process on Intel is slightly better, but not by much. The spacers had to forcefully be pushed onto the provided backplate, which did hold the backplate well enough to make attaching the bracket easier than it was on AMD, but depending on manufacturing tolerances, I can't say if that will be true for every cooler. Still, on the Intel test bench with my sample, the process was slightly easier than on AMD.