Installation

In the picture above we have the final three drives I was looking to use in the M4 review.
From left to right we have the Seagate 80GB, Maxtor 60GB and a 140GB WD Raptor. More importantly you can see the different types of I/O boards that control the drive. This can affect the way you place the gasket when installing. I'll also explain in the Performance section why I chose the Maxtor 60GB HDD in the picture on the top right.


Closeup of the I/O boards of the Seagate and WD Raptor HDD. Ideally the WD Raptor is a perfect drive to work with, flat and no chips to cause ripples. The Seagate is a small board and slopes down the slide.


The installation guide is short and sweet, pretty clear cut. Given you have a HDD with the I/O board that is around the center bearing or cuts clean under it. The guide gives you the important steps needed in installing the cooler.


Now in the picture, top left, you can see the Maxtor HDD has the I/O board cutting through the center bearing and cutting the gasket like the guide states isn't going to work with part of the board uncovered.


I only needed one gasket on the Maxtor and in some cases two may be required. Since only one gasket was required for the Maxtor I could use the second gasket without cutting out the circle, I still used the cut out section from the first gasket leaving the cut out circle to help keep the water block flat.