Installation

Installing the SilentiumPC Fortis 5 or Fortis 5 Dual Fan is a very simple process on AMD. First, remove the brackets holding the backplate on the motherboard. Next, secure the AMD backplate to the motherboard using the threaded standoff. With the standoffs in place, you can position the mounting bracket on the standoffs and secure it with four screws. It is a very simple, frustration-free design.


With the mounting bracket in place, you can now apply thermal paste and secure the heatsink to the mounting hardware. With that done, attach the fans.


With the heatsink and fans secure, you can now plug the fans in. To make things easier, the fans can be daisy-chained, so for the Fortis 5 Dual Fan, plug one fan into the header on the cable and the other to the CPU fan header on the motherboard.

Overall, installing these on AMD is refreshingly easy as I wasn't trying to hold on to multiple parts while securing the backplate and mounting brackets. The mounting hardware works similarly on Intel as well, making the Fortis 5 series easy to install, generally frustration-free. New to these coolers is a revamped design of the standoffs. They now offer a wrench for easier removal, along with a textured plastic shaft, so my biggest complaint with the mounting hardware used for the Fera 5 has been resolved. Previously, removing the mounting hardware on the Fera 5 meant using a pair of pliers, which caused some damage to the plastic on the spacers. The new standoffs I was able to remove by hand, as the plastic was a bit stiffer and the textured grip made for an easier time. Worst case, if you get them too tight, the included wrench should solve the issue quite easily.

Suffice it to say SilentiumPC took what was already one of the easier mounting hardware setups to work with on AMD and made it better. Imagine my surprise!