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Chapter 1: Product introduction
1.6.3 Installing the heatsink and fan
The AMD Athlon™ 64, AMD Athlon™ 64 X2, AMD Athlon™ 64 FX, or
AMD Sempron™ processors require a specially designed heatsink and fan
assembly to ensure optimum thermal condition and performance.
Make sure that you use only qualied heatsink and fan assembly.
Follow these steps to install the CPU heatsink and fan.
1. Place the heatsink on top of the installed CPU, making sure that the
heatsink ts properly on the retention module base.
• The retention module base is already installed on the motherboard
upon purchase.
• You do not have to remove the retention module base when
installing the CPU or installing other motherboard components.
• If you purchased a separate CPU heatsink and fan assembly, make
sure that a Thermal Interface Material is properly applied to the CPU
heatsink or CPU before you install the heatsink and fan assembly.
CPU Fan
CPU Heatsink
Retention bracket
Retention bracket lock
Retention Module Base
Your boxed CPU heatsink and fan assembly should come with installation
instructions for the CPU, heatsink, and the retention mechanism. If the
instructions in this section do not match the CPU documentation, follow
the latter.