Mounting Fans: A Frustrating Experience

The first step to mounting fans is installing the little clip that holds them in place, and I think this way looks right. There it is, okay, that's fine, through there, and then...this. Oh wait, no, that's not that's not right. I think they're the wrong way around. That's the right way around, and then this one. How is that also the wrong way around? Does it did I put it on the wrong side? Let's try that maybe maybe that works. Like, is it...um...wait no, but that that looks weird. This is like a USB port there, just isn't a correct...okay wait let's okay, I'm actually legitimately confused now, wait, wait.

Okay, finally after all that struggle, I've got both of the fans on, and I installed them the wrong way around. I despise metal fan mounting clips for CPU coolers; it is one of the most frustrating things to deal with. Some cooler manufacturers are better than others, I find that Arctic Freezer is specifically bad. The Cooler Master Hyper 212s clips are also really irritating, but I've kind of perfected the technique for mounting them. Knock to us is okay, it's pretty good, and that gratuitously large deep cool cooler that I used earlier in the video also has pretty usable clips.

My main suggestion would be don't try and mount an air cooler after you've mounted your motherboard in the case because that exacerbates the problem significantly as Anna found out in the NZXT video we did recently. I mean, the only other suggestion I'd have is be like a hundred percent zen when you start the process so that you have a lot of headroom for getting infuriated before you just fling the cooler out a window; that's the best I got for this one unfortunately.

Ah, my nemesis front panel connectors we meet again which way which way around is it? Yeah, come on, ah okay, oh no that's not right. We're gonna just do that, no, that's also not that go. Okay there we go, there's one down. Ah, do you do it one at a time? Okay, oh yes, no it's the...ah that's the wrong one. I don't know what you really even need a reset switch anyway; I can't wait to game on my new PC. Oh no, no, no, oh I must have plugged it in wrong. Damn you, front i o connectors. Number four is the PC building equivalent of sticking bamboo under your fingernails; I genuinely despise front panel connectors and the best solution to this problem and this may sound very chilly but just buy an NZXT case; they have like one square connector that's a little bit like a USB 2 front panel connector, I don't know why every other case manufacturer doesn't do this. Maybe NZXT has a patent on it or something but yeah it makes it so much easier.

Although if you don't want to buy an NZXT case the other solutions are...don't have your graphics card plugged in while you're struggling to do it, I guess, and what also helps is start with the bottom pins first, so start with the power LEDs and then the power switch, the HDD LEDs, and then the reset switch that makes it a bit easier. Other than that, you're just gonna have to suffer there's no real other way around that.

Before I'm at my CPU cooler, I just need to get some thermal paste on the CPU. Like that should be okay. Oh crap how did I get that on there? Okay, let me just wipe that down and then we'll wait. How did I get it? Wait how did it...how did it get on there? Oh come on; I gotta get this clean.

Anna's always complaining about how I get thermal paste everywhere. It's okay, I mean I guess ah what's happening. No...pet peeve number five is thermal paste's uncanny ability to end up all in your hair and covering your cat despite the fact that you were convinced you didn't touch it at all during the installation process, and for this one I have one very effective solution: Ah Velita Fresh now with patent pending Thermal Paste Away Technology that prevents the asexual reproduction of thermal paste and stops it from getting all up in your hair or whatever. Now that's what I call Velita Fresh.

---

In conclusion... (not really)

Mounting fans can be frustrating, especially when using metal fan mounting clips for CPU coolers. Arctic Freezer and Cooler Master Hyper 212s have been particularly problematic. To avoid this frustration, it is recommended to mount an air cooler after the motherboard has been installed in the case or to purchase a NZXT case with square front panel connectors that are easier to work with.

Another pet peeve of mine is thermal paste's uncanny ability to end up all over the place during installation and its tendency to leave behind unwanted residue on surfaces. I've found that using Velita Fresh can help minimize this problem, but it still requires a bit of elbow grease to get the job done.

While mounting fans may not be the most exciting task, with the right tools and techniques (and a healthy dose of patience), it's definitely possible to overcome the frustrations associated with this process.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enokay we're going to be very careful they're like this better work this time oh case didn't come with any extra screws of that type today we're gonna have a look at the top five things that i hate about building pcs and i may actually give you some practical solutions to a couple of them in this video that aren't entirely sarcastic like the first one uh with the whole screw dropping thing uh you know and you put just that right the easiest way to solve that and this is something that somebody told me in the comment section of a video a while ago but basically you just need to re-magnetize your screwdriver it's really easy to do you take a magnet even a magnetic parts tray will work and then you slowly rub it along the shaft of the screwdriver a couple of times and then it should be magnetized so let's try there look at that look at that look at how well that works it's like magic and if you want to de-magnetize the screwdriver you can just take the magnet and rub it in the opposite direction don't know why this works but physics i guess and now we should have a useless screwdriver again that is that is amazing i love that so with that before we get into the next four irritating things it's time for today's video sponsor manscaped today's video is sponsored by the manscaped performance package 4.0 by manscaped featuring man skate the centerpiece of the performance package 4.0 by manscaped is the lawnmower 4.0 which is waterproof and comes with a ceramic skin safe blade which means you'll really struggle to cut your gentleman's vegetables it also has an led which means that you can trim wherever you want even if a freak explosion at your local power plant knocks out the power grid the performance package 4.0 also comes with crop preserver and crop reviver to keep you fresh all day for a limited time you'll also get two free gifts the awesome shed travel bag and anti-chafing boxer briefs by manscaped if that sounds good to you head over to manscape.com forward slash david for 20 off free international shipping and the two free gifts oh hell yeah i've just finished installing my gratuitously massive cpu air cooler and quite frankly i can't foresee that this is going to cause any difficulties for the rest of the build yes now that i've mounted my motherboard the next step is to plug in the cpu8 pen oh come on okay oh oh so close oh it's there no come on you just kind of can't use my thumb is that oh it's in yes there is something uniquely frustrating about having your shiny new gratuitously massive air cooler mounted and then to just struggle for 40 minutes to plug the cpu power in now there are a couple of solutions to this the first one is grow daintier hands i guess or you can employ a small child to do it for you the problem with employing a small child though is that there are a bunch of sharp metal edges which they're inevitably going to cut their hands on and then you're going to have a whole lawsuit on your hands and stuff it's it's it's not pretty so i would not recommend going down that route the other way you can go about it is just buy a case with good clearance in that department something like the fractal design mesh of ic is just really good at this even if you have a big air cooler you can easily plug in the cpu8 pin but if you have a restricted case i think the easiest way to go about dealing with this problem is you pre-route the cpu8 pin and then you take your motherboard and you place it down at a bit of an angle being careful not to scratch the bottom of the motherboard on the motherboard standoffs and then you plug the cpu8 pin in and then properly seat the motherboard screwing it down and whatever this works really well it seems like obvious advice but i have gone years without doing this and once i started doing it i can i can never go back uh now you could also mount the cpu cooler after you've mounted the motherboard in the case but that has its own problems attached to it which i'll mention in the next annoyance the first step to mounting the fans is installing the little clip that holds them in place so i think this way looks right there it is okay that through there and then this oh wait no that's not that's not right i think they're the wrong way around that's the right way around and then this one how is that also the wrong way around does it did i put it on the wrong side let's try that maybe maybe that works like is it um wait no but that that looks weird this is this is like a usb port there just isn't a correct okay wait let's okay i'm actually legitimately confused now wait wait okay finally after all that struggle i've got both of the fans on i installed them the wrong way around i despise metal fan mounting clips for cpu coolers is it is one of the most frustrating things to deal with some cooler manufacturers are better than others i find that that arctic freezer is specifically bad uh the cooler master hyper 212s clips are also really irritating but i've kind of perfected the uh the technique for mounting it knock to us is okay it's pretty good and that gratuitously large deep cool cooler that i used earlier in the video also has pretty usable clips uh now my my main suggestion would be do not try and mount an air cooler after you've mounted your motherboard in the case because that exacerbates the problem significantly as anna found out in the nzxt video we did recently i mean the only other suggestion i'd have is be like a hundred percent zen when you start the process so that you have a lot of headroom for getting infuriated before you just fling the cooler out a window that's the best i got for this one unfortunately ah my nemesis front panel connectors we meet again which way which way around is it yeah come on ah okay oh no that's not right we're gonna just do that no that's also not that go okay there we go there's one down ah do you do it one at a time okay oh yes no it's the ah that's the wrong one i can't see what i'm doing okay you know what whatever do you really even need a reset switch anyway i can't wait to game on my new pc oh no no no oh i must have plugged it in wrong damn you front i o connectors number four is the pc building equivalent of sticking bamboo under your fingernails i genuinely despise front panel connectors and the best solution to this problem and this may sound very chilly but just buy an nzxt case they have like one square connector that's a little bit like a usb 2 front panel connector i don't know why every other case manufacturer doesn't do this maybe nzxt has a patent on it or something but yeah it makes it so much easier although if you don't want to buy an nzxt case the other solutions are don't have your graphics card plugged in while you're struggling to do it i guess and what also helps is start with the bottom pins first so start with the power leds and then the power switch the hdd leds and then the reset switch that makes it a bit easier other than that you're just gonna have to suffer there's no real other way around that before i'm at my cpu cooler i just need to get some thermal paste on the cpu like that should be okay oh crap how did i get that on there okay let me just wipe that down and then we'll wait how did i get it wait how did it how did it get on there oh come on i gotta get this clean anna's always complaining about how i get thermal paste everywhere it's okay i mean i guess ah what's happening no pet peeve number five is thermal paste's uncanny ability to end up all in your hair and covering your cat despite the fact that you were convinced you didn't touch it at all during the installation process and for this one i have one very very effective solution ah velita fresh now with patent pending thermal paste away technology that prevents the asexual reproduction of thermal paste and stops it from getting all up in your hair or whatever now that's what i call velita freshokay we're going to be very careful they're like this better work this time oh case didn't come with any extra screws of that type today we're gonna have a look at the top five things that i hate about building pcs and i may actually give you some practical solutions to a couple of them in this video that aren't entirely sarcastic like the first one uh with the whole screw dropping thing uh you know and you put just that right the easiest way to solve that and this is something that somebody told me in the comment section of a video a while ago but basically you just need to re-magnetize your screwdriver it's really easy to do you take a magnet even a magnetic parts tray will work and then you slowly rub it along the shaft of the screwdriver a couple of times and then it should be magnetized so let's try there look at that look at that look at how well that works it's like magic and if you want to de-magnetize the screwdriver you can just take the magnet and rub it in the opposite direction don't know why this works but physics i guess and now we should have a useless screwdriver again that is that is amazing i love that so with that before we get into the next four irritating things it's time for today's video sponsor manscaped today's video is sponsored by the manscaped performance package 4.0 by manscaped featuring man skate the centerpiece of the performance package 4.0 by manscaped is the lawnmower 4.0 which is waterproof and comes with a ceramic skin safe blade which means you'll really struggle to cut your gentleman's vegetables it also has an led which means that you can trim wherever you want even if a freak explosion at your local power plant knocks out the power grid the performance package 4.0 also comes with crop preserver and crop reviver to keep you fresh all day for a limited time you'll also get two free gifts the awesome shed travel bag and anti-chafing boxer briefs by manscaped if that sounds good to you head over to manscape.com forward slash david for 20 off free international shipping and the two free gifts oh hell yeah i've just finished installing my gratuitously massive cpu air cooler and quite frankly i can't foresee that this is going to cause any difficulties for the rest of the build yes now that i've mounted my motherboard the next step is to plug in the cpu8 pen oh come on okay oh oh so close oh it's there no come on you just kind of can't use my thumb is that oh it's in yes there is something uniquely frustrating about having your shiny new gratuitously massive air cooler mounted and then to just struggle for 40 minutes to plug the cpu power in now there are a couple of solutions to this the first one is grow daintier hands i guess or you can employ a small child to do it for you the problem with employing a small child though is that there are a bunch of sharp metal edges which they're inevitably going to cut their hands on and then you're going to have a whole lawsuit on your hands and stuff it's it's it's not pretty so i would not recommend going down that route the other way you can go about it is just buy a case with good clearance in that department something like the fractal design mesh of ic is just really good at this even if you have a big air cooler you can easily plug in the cpu8 pin but if you have a restricted case i think the easiest way to go about dealing with this problem is you pre-route the cpu8 pin and then you take your motherboard and you place it down at a bit of an angle being careful not to scratch the bottom of the motherboard on the motherboard standoffs and then you plug the cpu8 pin in and then properly seat the motherboard screwing it down and whatever this works really well it seems like obvious advice but i have gone years without doing this and once i started doing it i can i can never go back uh now you could also mount the cpu cooler after you've mounted the motherboard in the case but that has its own problems attached to it which i'll mention in the next annoyance the first step to mounting the fans is installing the little clip that holds them in place so i think this way looks right there it is okay that through there and then this oh wait no that's not that's not right i think they're the wrong way around that's the right way around and then this one how is that also the wrong way around does it did i put it on the wrong side let's try that maybe maybe that works like is it um wait no but that that looks weird this is this is like a usb port there just isn't a correct okay wait let's okay i'm actually legitimately confused now wait wait okay finally after all that struggle i've got both of the fans on i installed them the wrong way around i despise metal fan mounting clips for cpu coolers is it is one of the most frustrating things to deal with some cooler manufacturers are better than others i find that that arctic freezer is specifically bad uh the cooler master hyper 212s clips are also really irritating but i've kind of perfected the uh the technique for mounting it knock to us is okay it's pretty good and that gratuitously large deep cool cooler that i used earlier in the video also has pretty usable clips uh now my my main suggestion would be do not try and mount an air cooler after you've mounted your motherboard in the case because that exacerbates the problem significantly as anna found out in the nzxt video we did recently i mean the only other suggestion i'd have is be like a hundred percent zen when you start the process so that you have a lot of headroom for getting infuriated before you just fling the cooler out a window that's the best i got for this one unfortunately ah my nemesis front panel connectors we meet again which way which way around is it yeah come on ah okay oh no that's not right we're gonna just do that no that's also not that go okay there we go there's one down ah do you do it one at a time okay oh yes no it's the ah that's the wrong one i can't see what i'm doing okay you know what whatever do you really even need a reset switch anyway i can't wait to game on my new pc oh no no no oh i must have plugged it in wrong damn you front i o connectors number four is the pc building equivalent of sticking bamboo under your fingernails i genuinely despise front panel connectors and the best solution to this problem and this may sound very chilly but just buy an nzxt case they have like one square connector that's a little bit like a usb 2 front panel connector i don't know why every other case manufacturer doesn't do this maybe nzxt has a patent on it or something but yeah it makes it so much easier although if you don't want to buy an nzxt case the other solutions are don't have your graphics card plugged in while you're struggling to do it i guess and what also helps is start with the bottom pins first so start with the power leds and then the power switch the hdd leds and then the reset switch that makes it a bit easier other than that you're just gonna have to suffer there's no real other way around that before i'm at my cpu cooler i just need to get some thermal paste on the cpu like that should be okay oh crap how did i get that on there okay let me just wipe that down and then we'll wait how did i get it wait how did it how did it get on there oh come on i gotta get this clean anna's always complaining about how i get thermal paste everywhere it's okay i mean i guess ah what's happening no pet peeve number five is thermal paste's uncanny ability to end up all in your hair and covering your cat despite the fact that you were convinced you didn't touch it at all during the installation process and for this one i have one very very effective solution ah velita fresh now with patent pending thermal paste away technology that prevents the asexual reproduction of thermal paste and stops it from getting all up in your hair or whatever now that's what i call velita fresh