Ziggy 3

The metal bracket is a bit wider than the plastic one (the plastic one was able to fit in between it), but luckily, it wasn't that much of a problem. The metal bracket's holes were about 1-1.5mm too short, and I couldn't fit one of the sides of the socket 478 adaptation bar though the hole. At first, I was going to file it down, but since I would have to get rid of 1-1.5mm of metal, I thought it would be easier to just cut it out.

Boy was I wrong. The steel was too hard for the blade to cut into it (it was slowly doing something, and though I was using a dull blade, I'm sure a new blade wouldn't have helped any). I decided to modify the adaptation bars instead, as it's made of "structural" aluminium (I don't know how to call it). I filed down enough of the top tip (as it doesn't contribute to structural integrity) of one side for each bar so it would fit through the hole and have enough left to hold the bar in place.

Installing the Zalman CNPS9500 back on was annoying as hell, even with the motherboard out of the case. I first started with the non-fan side, then quickly realized that wasn't a good idea. After getting the screws to keep the 9500 harness in place, I used a pair of pliers to slightly bend the bracket a bit, so the adaptation bars would seat properly (I tried by hand, but it was too hard). Besides exerting a lot of pressure to get the screw to the bar to screw in, the metal bracket lowered the bars a bit more than the plastic one, so I decided to not screw the 9500 harness down all the way and left about 3-4 mm between the harness and the adaptation bars.

I decided it was enough pressure, and I was already a bit edgy with how much pressure there was, but I was also uneasy with the screws not being in all the way; I also wanted to use longer screws to kinda ease all that, but I didn't feel like undoing the screws, since I used quite a bit of energy just to get them seated and such.

If all goes well, the metal bracket should last for quite some time.

New metal bracket and old plastic bracket.

I also got a chance to replace all the motherboard stand-off screws while I had the motherboard out (when I got the case, the company decided to short me 2 stand-off screws, but I adapted with some weird plastic things that was the same height), and the other stand-off screws I had weren't the same height, but I had enough to replace them all, so for once, the motherboard is fully screwed in.

Don't remember when, but I took the IDE DVD burner from Lie-chan (the other one in her is SATA), and put it in Ziggy, since Ziggy would benefit more from it than Lie-chan.

I've also put 13.1 on Ziggy without any problems, but might have to reinstall once I find a real use for him

Things I've learned from this escapade:

• Intel sucks at CPU cooler mounting ideas
• Zalman CNPS9500 installation for socket 478 sucks more than Zalman CNPS9900 Max installation
• Ziggy can handle openSUSE 13.1 just fine