I will be installing the Thermalright HR-05-SLI on a number of motherboards that should cover most of the possible mounting orientations one would encounter when using this chipset cooler.



Before getting started, however, we must do a little preparation. This black foam pad that comes with the accessories is simply used for protecting the core of the chipset by keeping the cooler from rocking while mounted on the core. It is secured to the cooler by way of adhesive like a sticker. With it secured, we are ready for the first mount.



The only motherboard I have with hook type mounting is the recently reviewed Foxconn 975X7AB-8EKRS2H. I found this mounting method to be extremely easy. Simply setting the cooler down on the north bridge and holding the bracket in-place over the dimple on top with one finger while using my free hand to push down on each side to clip the hooks accomplished this task in about 10 seconds. The hooks hold the cooler very secure and it showed no signs of wanting to rock or move at all.



I have also mounted the Thermalright Ultra-120 here just to show that not only is the HR-05-SLI great for mounting in an SLI setup to avoid video cards, but it can also be utilized to avoid large heatsinks on CPU coolers when the north bridge is close to the socket like on this LGA775 board. There is clearly plenty of room on both sides of the cooler for the heatsink to the left or a video card in the green slot to the right.



The next three motherboard mounts all utilize the push-pin type mount and all use the short bracket so the first thing required is to simply mount the push-pins to the bracket by popping them through the holes.



The first motherboard that I test-fitted on was the Asus P5B-Deluxe which, again, has the north bridge near the CPU socket and not in-between GPU slots so I will use the Thermalright Ultra-120 to demonstrate how it can help with large coolers. There is no way the HR-05 would mount with this combination if the CPU cooler was in this orientation. The HR-05-SLI makes this setup possible with the offset heatpipes.



This setup did cause some problems with video card mounts though. The backplate of my HIS X800GTO IceQ II is for securing the Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer cooler and there is absolutely no way to use this card in the top X16 PCI-E slot as the HR-05-SLI is just too wide.



Even a video card without a backplate makes this a tight fit and without taking extra steps, could lead to shorting or grounding the video cards backside on the cooling fins.



An easy way to fix that issue though is to use the included cable ties as seen in the photo above. Two minutes later and this setup is more than secure keeping a nice gap between the card and the cooler. If you look at the very bottom of the photo you can see that the memory module retention clip also comes into contact with the video card when opened. This is a good indication that the top video card slot on this motherboard is way too tight to the CPU bracket and obviously the chipset so I am faulting Asus here with a poor board layout.



This is just a wider angle of the complete setup and you can see the video card is leaning slightly towards the bottom of the motherboard but not nearly enough to interfere with operation or the ability to secure it to the back of a case. If you have a P5B Deluxe though, you might want to get the regular HR-05 and ensure it will fit with your CPU cooler as there really isn't a lot of room up top to work with.



Moving over to the AMD side of the world I start off with our first true SLI capable motherboard, the DFI Ultra-D...don't tell DFI mine is SLI capable and I won't tell them either. This is where the HR-05-SLI was designed to work, where space is tight behind the GPU units and any cooler more than a centimeter tall won't fit.



Again, the fit with the HIS X800GTO IceQ II is tight but there are no issues with the mount. The backplate actually does the job of the cable ties and the lean is more pronounced in this photo than it really is. Mounting this setup in a case would be easy enough.



The last motherboard I will be taking some installation photos of is another DFI LanParty motherboard and this one is actually SLI capable out of the box. I will also be using this, the NF590 SLI-M2R/G, for testing so that is why I saved it for last. You can see in this photo that the MCP is extremely far south on this motherboard, most nForce 590 motherboards for AM2 have the MCP higher up than it is here. With that said, the HR-05-SLI is still the perfect companion and a must if you are running an SLI setup here and want to replace the stock chipset cooler.



I have mounted my largest and most awkward video card in the bottom slot to simulate an SLI setup and again, the HIS X800GTO IceQ II, demonstrates that even dual slot coolers will work well with the HR-05-SLI. I didn't need to add the cable tie for protection but figured I might as well, just for fun. With this exact setup, the passive HR-05-SLI is almost being actively cooled as the AC Silencer cooler draws air over the unit on its way into the GPU cooler.



I didn't have a 70mm fan to test fit for active cooling but I did easily mount an 80mm fan with a couple of cable ties. I initially mounted the fan on the other side of the fins but was disappointed to find that the extra weight actually rocked the cooler backwards enough that I would be concerned with the cooler not making good contact.

The push-pin mount wasn't as secure as I would have liked and I was a bit disappointed that Thermalright didn't address this mounting type a little better. I personally would have preferred a screw type mount instead of push-pins because push-pins just can't get that real secure mount of any cooler, let alone an off-set one like the HR-05-SLI. With that said, there is certainly no problem with the mounting and sitting a motherboard upright wouldn't even begin to cause an issue with the push-pin mounts so I really can't complain as it does its job well.