Installation

Installation is fairly straightforward on the Intel LGA 115x CPU platform. The backplate mechanism borrows a lot from previous generations of EK CPU blocks, which is not an issue as it still works fine. You will have to remove the inner portion of the rubber gasket held in place at four points, and EK could have removed it for us given the level of detail elsewhere. It is a common part shared with other blocks, however, so I can understand why they would reuse it. Have the gasket between the board and the metal backplate with the ribbed side facing outward to prevent electrical shorting. The backplate needs to be oriented such that it matches up with the screws in the socket ILM as well, and depending on how many components are on your motherboard, there may be some interference in getting a flush fit with the rubber gasket. There is generally enough give to where this should not be an issue, but please double check before trying to force-fit something.

With that done, take the four standoffs, which happen to be M4 threaded, and pass them through a plastic washer each and the cooler mounting holes in the backplate to thread them into the backplate as seen above. The standoffs have a lower profile than your average CPU block mounting post, but are tall enough to support the EK-Quantum Magnitude, with the holes in the frame covering them entirely. Be sure to put thermal paste on the CPU IHS before this, and the provided Thermal Grizzly Hydronaut is an excellent option with a good balance of thermal conductivity and ease of spread, density, and viscosity.


Now place the metal springs over the standoffs in each corner and use the mounting screws with the inner thread on the standoffs to finish the installation. You will need to use the provided hex key since there is no room to finger-tighten the screws in place while they are inside the frame. As such, there is an ever-present hazard of someone over-tightening them with the provided hex key, though it is fairly hard to do based on my deliberate attempts. Secondly, it is hard to simultaneously install two diagonal-locking screws when using the single hex key, so users may not be able to apply uniform pressure throughout installation. A pre-spread of thermal paste may not be a bad idea as an alternative—I was still well within error margins of thermal performance.

As a side note, those familiar with CPU blocks from other companies will notice that this is a similar installation approach to the Aqua Computex cuplex kryos NEXT, which also used a low profile/hidden installation mechanism. Also, there is no lighting support out of the box for the full nickel blocks unless you buy the replacement accent, and I am not sure how much light comes through even then. You might instead be better off getting a custom color accent if you want to add a splash of color beyond the nickel-plating.