Sunday proved to be a challenging day pulling apart the old PC and then unboxing, studying manuals for new toys, and putting bits together. I'm sure the experienced would take but a few minutes, but this was a day's task
Assembling the cooler mounting proved a bit trial and error. A brief diagram might have helped. I appreciate that it was designed as OEM type kit, and probably used mostly by OcUK staff, but for someone who last put a PC together in 2011 it was a bit of guesswork. I eventually decided you but the mounting plate on from underneath first, and this then rotates slightly so the tabs will engage into the cooler. The plastic ring, will only fit one way from the underside, and then should engage into the mounting plate. I also came to the conclusion that the thermal paste on the cooler should be removed and replaced with the thermal grizzley goo. Now if I've got that wrong .....
Like a couple of others I've also had some fun and games getting the board / windows to recognise my existing SSDs, especially the Samsung Evo that had been the boot drive on my i7 2600K. The PC finally found it this morning and windows then wanted to do the complete chkdsk thing.
I had feared the radiator fans would be too loud. OK I am aware they are there at full speed, but they are quieter than the Corsair H100 I had before when that was at full tilt. So it's all good. Once I find a couple more fan cables hopefully I'll be able to reduce some of those speeds too, as I don't expect to permanently overclock.
All in all a good set of kit, and when you consider the Black Friday price, excellent.