Of all the manufacturers of refrigeration products, if there is one outstanding, it is Noctua ; The Austrian manufacturer is dedicated exclusively to cooling and puts all its R&D drive into it, which is why its heatsinks always rank at the top of the performance rankings. But, in addition to having some of the best heatsinks on the market , they also have the award-winning SecuFirm anchoring system , recognized as one of the safest and at the same time easier to use. In this tutorial we are going to tell you the ins and outs of this anchoring system and, of course, we are going to tell you how to mount any type of Noctua heatsink that carries it.
The Noctua SecuFirm anchoring system is recognized for being one of the easiest to use and at the same time the safest; It is compatible with all types of Intel and AMD sockets and is integrated into practically all the brand’s heatsinks, so if you have questions about how to mount a Noctua heatsink, in this article you will find the answer to your questions.
How to mount a Noctua heatsink on Intel CPUs
The Noctua SecuFirm anchoring system consists of a total of 11 parts:
- The backplate.
- Two brackets.
- Four dividers.
- Four screws.
The backplate is specifically designed for Intel sockets and comes with the integrated male screws, so you just have to align these with the holes in the motherboard socket, making sure you do it in the correct direction (note that the backplate has certain holes that are there so that the internal screws of the socket itself do not collide). This backplate, which is always black, is made of robust steel and is the one that will be responsible for distributing and supporting the weight of the heatsink so that the motherboard is not damaged despite the great weight of the heatsinks.
Then we always find the two supports that you can see at the top, above the backplate; these are the ones that have several holes to be able to pass the backplate screws through them, so that they adapt to any type of Intel socket without any problem. Beyond that, we have the black plastic standoffs and the four female screws that serve, obviously, to anchor the brackets to the backplate.
So, as we have said before to install a Noctua heatsink with SecuFirm in an Intel system, first you have to place the backplate from the back, matching the screws and making it perfectly flat; the next step is to place one of the black plastic spacers on each of them.
The next step is to place the supports; This step is not complicated, simply deposit it making the holes coincide with those of the backplate and make sure you do it with the correct orientation, as shown in the following image.
Once placed on top, you just have to place the screws and tighten them with your fingers. Noctua also supplies an L screwdriver to make it easy for you to tighten them all the way.
With this, the SecuFirm anchoring system is already installed, it’s that simple. Now it would be obvious to place the heatsink, and this is as simple as (after applying thermal paste) placing the heatsink on top of the processor making the screws that come pre-installed in it coincide with those of the supports and tightening them, initially with your hands and then helping you with the screwdriver.
Clever. Once both screws have been tightened, the heatsink will have already been fixed to the SecuFirm anchoring system, and it will only be necessary to mount and connect the fans so that it is ready to operate.
The SecuFirm anchor for AMD CPUs
If you have an AMD system and you want to use a Noctua heatsink, you can also do it in an even easier way than the one we have already seen for Intel processors because you don’t even need a specific backplate, but you can use the one that always comes by default on AMD motherboards. The components that make up the SecuFirm system for AMD processors are the following:
- Four brackets (two short and two long, to choose the orientation of the heatsink).
- Four screws.
- Four dividers.
The installation is even simpler than that of an Intel system, since as we have indicated, the same backplate that all AMD motherboards come with is used. Of course, what must be removed are the supports of this backplate, so you must remove the two screws on each side and remove them together with the plastic piece, since what is used is simply the backplate but not the rest.
Here you must make a decision, and since the AMD socket is rectangular and not square, to choose the orientation of the heatsink you must choose between using the set of short or long supports, depending on where you want the heatsink to be oriented. In the following graph you can see what orientation the heatsink will have depending on the supports you choose, and you can also see its orientation in the anchor.
Once you have chosen the ones you want to use, now what you have to do is put the plastic spacers on top of each of the holes in the backplate.
Now, insert two screws in the holes of each of the supports and insert them making them coincide with the hole of the separator and backplate. You will see it clearly in the following image.
The next step is to simply screw in the four screws so that the bracket is securely attached.
Ready, with this the Secufirm anchor has already been mounted in the AMD system, and what remains is the same as in Intel’s: put the thermal paste and then put the heatsink on top of the processor making the screws pre-installed in it coincide with the ones male screws of the brackets. Press, and it will be fixed.
Once this is done, we will only have to mount the fans and connect them to have the heatsink ready and working in our AMD system. As you can see, mounting a Noctua SecuFirm anchor could not be easier and, really, it is a process that does not take more than five minutes even in inexperienced hands.
