Question 1

how does this attach to cpu/mobo?

Accepted Answer

You must first mount two brackets to the heat sink.  A set of brackets is provided with the Samuel 17 to fit your particular socket.  There are four spring loaded screws and four plastic bushings that you use to mount the heat sink.  The screws come in from the back side of the motherboard.  It's a simple but effective mounting solution.  The heat sink itself is a work of art.  Make sure to leave it where you can see it and pick it up and admire its beauty before you mount it.  Cheers.

Question 2

how will this heatsink with a fan work on a 95 watt apu ? do you think it big enough to cool this setup ?

Accepted Answer

I'll think you'll be alright. My desktop used a 4-core, 8-thread  45 TDP intel CPU without a fan, and even at 100% cpu utilization the Prolimatech Sam. 17 kept temps at 77-80 degrees. It you're looking to overclock, consider another cooler though. Good luck.

Question 3

Would it be sufficient to use this cooler without a fan on a 65 Watt (low power) Intel i5 CPU? I'm not overclocking, and just want to use these heat pipes for passive cooling. The mini-ITX build I'm developing would have the PSU directly over the CPU with 70mm of clearance between the PSU and CPU. So this cooler is short enough to fit. My thinking is use this cooler to suck hot air out, and use the PSU to move warm air out of the case. My video card will be passive as well. So if this cooler is sufficient instead of the stock fan, this would be a super silent build.

Accepted Answer

No, this heat sink will not function well passively. I do not recommend it.

Question 4

No Phone contact available with Prolimatech and, being Friday, they didn't respond to my e-mail. Is this heat sink at an offset position allowing clearance for a video card in a mini itx case? I ALREADY BOUGHT THE SCYTHE FAN BUT WILL THE Prolimatech PRO-SAM17 Samuel 17 CPU Cooler with a Scythe Slip Stream Slim 120mm Case Fan combo fit in my case with the video card?
INTEL Haswell Processor (presently with stock HSF)
VIDEO CARD: ASUS GTX660 TI-DC2O-2GD5 GeForce GTX 660Ti   6
CASE: BITFENIX COLOSSUS MINI-ITX             
MOTHERBOARD: GIGABYTE GA-Z87N-WIFI (rev. 2.0.x)              RAM: GSKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB)

Accepted Answer

I have the Samuel installed on an ASUS mini-itx motherboard with an 84-watt, Ivy Bridge Core i7 and it cools it perfectly.  The case is a Cooler Master Elite 130.

I just rebuilt a HTPC with a GIGABYTE GA-H77N-WIFI LGA 1155 and noticed how little space there is between the CPU and the video card.  I already had a Noctua NH-L9i 95mm SSO2 CPU Cooler and reused it.  If you're using a Core i3 processor the Noctua is more than enough.

Another cooler that I successfully used was a Noctua NH-L12.  It was used with just the 92mm fan for clearance purposes and a Core i7 3770k processor and it cools it fine.

Question 5

Building a M-ITX Gaming system in the new Silverstone Raven case with a MSI Z87I GAMING AC mobo and G.Skill Sniper memory.  Has anyone has had any issues with this Cooler and mobo/ram config?  Thanks for any info.

Marc

Accepted Answer

The way it mounts there is no heat sink directly over the memory slots, so normal memory with a modest heat spreader like the G-Skill snipers should be fine. I just wouldn't try to fit anything with a big spreader like RipJaws or Corsair Dominator/Vengeance.

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