Problems mounting Storm block
 

I don't know if anyone else has something similar to this particular setup, but on my new DFI Lanparty nforce3 board with a 3100+ Sempron (754), the bolts that come with the block are not long enough to reach the mounting holes. The block sits on the CPU and the 1.5" bolts are about 1/8" away from the bracket holes. Am I missing something?

It's a known issue. I had sized the bolts to be long enough to fit with the AMD reference mounting back-plate design, not realising that various motherboard manufacturers were supplying mounting back-plates that did not follow the reference mounting back-plate design. The AMD reference back-plate design is meant to have bolt "wells" that poke up 8mm (5/16") up from the surface of the board, which would normally give about 5mm of thread for the supplied bolts to bite into.

Presently you have two options:

1) Email me, and I will mail you some 6-32 x 2" long bolts (free), along with some washers. Put 5-6 washers on each bolt, and screw the longer bolts through the black mounting bracket and into the DFI mounting back-plate. The washers are needed because the 2" long bolts are now "too long" and can hit the ATX case back-plate behind the motherboard.

2) Go to home depot and pick up some 6-32 x 2" long bolts, and use the washers from 4-bolt mounting kit to stand the bolts off enough and bolt them through the black mounting bracket and into the DFI back-plate.

I'll head to Home Depot then. I wanted to make sure it was a legitimate issue, not just my inability to follow simple directions. Problem solved then.

an alternate (and better to my mind) is to use a steel backing plate per the AMD specs

Cathar, the plastic plates are quite flexible - you sure on this ?

I agree on the proper AMD back-plate. Much better solution.

Plastic plates Bill? Are we talking about the DFI backing plate? I am (obviously) not familiar with all the different variants that mobo makers are shipping, seemingly to cut $0.20-0.50c on costs here and there to the detriment of the correctly engineered reference standard that AMD set out.

nor am I even slightly comfortable thinking of all the ways to cut a nickle
don't recall where we got the molded 'plate' with threaded inserts - but it got our backs up
2 attachment points and high loads don't mix w/o a steel plate - for our stuff at least
- and @60lbf the steel plate bends too

suggest prudence

Impatience got the better of me and I adapted some of the P4 bolts for use with the AMD mounting holes. I took off the rear plate and put a washer between the bolt head and the board and another on the other side, then secured it with a nut. The block slid right on and I used a couple more washers, the springs and wing nuts to put pressure down on the block. The bolts are attached to the motherboard tight enough that they don't move a bit. Sure I might be exerting a bit of pressure on the chip itself, without a proper backplate, but I can live without it for the time being. 42C load on my Sempron 3100+ @ 2.0ghz is looking pretty good right now. I hope to hit 2.6ghz but my RAM might hold me back.

How about drill the holes in the motherboard tray and thread them. Then use the motherboard stand offs. Screw the bolts into that.