Intel Installation

To install the Vivo on an LGA775 system, the motherboard must be completely removed to mount the backplate. There is a small pad with double-sided tape around the center of the backplate that needs to be removed. With the board upside-down, align the backplate with the mounting holes around the CPU and press down. Then the board can be flipped over and the thermal compound installed. According to the installation instructions for Arctic Silver 5, a small thin line should be placed along the center of the core. Due to the orientation of the CPU socket, there was no need to apply the compound in a different manor (as was done with the AMD CPU) to ensure proper coverage of the CPU die. However, since we experienced some of the compound filling the gaps on the base of the Vivo, a little extra compound was used.


The Vivo was placed upon the CPU, lining up the mounting screws with the holes in the backplate. Since the white cover was off, it was much easier to use a phillips screwdriver instead of the small wrench provided by Zaward. The screws were tightened evenly by turning each screw three turns, then crossing over to the next screw in an "X" pattern. This process was repeated until all four screws were snug.


The cover was then replaced and the four screws tightened. There was plenty of room around the cooler with the stock components. The closest anything came to the Vivo was the Northbridge chipset heatsink, but nothing was touching.


The fan was plugged into the header on the motherboard, and the wire needed to be looped due to its stiffness.


Since the Intel installation does not use the same clip as AMD, there is no interference when adding a second fan. The cover was removed, the second fan was bolted in place, and the cover was reattached. If the fan bolts are tightened too much, there will be some bowing of the fan frame, and the extra bolt sticking through the nut may scrape the fins of the heatsink as it is lowered onto the cooler. To avoid these issues, only tighten the bolts until the tip is flush with the nut inside the cover. With the cover in place, the fan slightly covers the MOSFET heatsink, but does not touch.