Taeric

This question seems to pop up at least once a week. Hopefully this will help answer some of the general questions about it.

General Information
As many know, the Thermalright XP-XXX series of CPU heatsinks are among the best on the market. Their use of quality materials, heatpipe technology, and exacting workmanship produces from very nice and highly efficient heatsinks. In addition to effectively cooling the CPU, the size and spread of these heatsinks assist with cooling of nearby motherboards components. The problem with them is that all of them are large and heavy, particularly the XP-120 (and likely even more so if/when an XP-120c is produced).

XP-90/XP-90c
The XP-90/XP-90c is compatible with most socket 478, 754, 775 (with adapter kit, sold separately, of course), 939, and 940 motherboards. Thermalright has assembled compatibility info for the XP-90/XP-90c here. The one exception is the Abit AI7 mobo, which is incompatible due to the orientation of the socket. Also, some modifications need to be made to the Gigabyte K8 boards.

XP-120
The XP-120 is designed for socket 478, 754, 775 (with adapter kit), 939, and 940 motherboards, but due to the sheer size of the heatsink, it will either not fit on some motherboards or mods to the heatsink and/or motherboard will be necessary. Thermalright has assembled compatibility info for the XP-120 (AMD mobos and Intel - S478 and S775) that includes an extensive list of motherboards.

Adapters/Accessories
The full list of adapters and accessories can be found here. Please note that not every item on this page relates to the XP-XXX series but many do. A review of several online specialty stores did not yield any adapters beyond those manufactured by Thermalright.

Important post-installation note
If you install any of these heatsinks on your motherboard, it is important to remember that care should be taken when moving your case once the heatsink is installed. Dynamic forces (i.e. bouncing) on the case could cause the motherboard retention brackets to fail, causing potentially significant damage to your PC. When moving a PC with an XP-XXX installed, it is best to either move it on its side or else to remove the heatsink entirely. Although it is a pain to have to clean and reapply thermal grease, it's better than tearing the retention brackets off your motherboard and having a large heatsink rattling around freely in your case.

Taeric

Updated with some additional content and reformatted.

DaftFully17

thanks man, this gave me some cofidence to actually try one of these huge puppies :)

lightsource

Thnx.. I didn't know how strong the retention bracket was. Thnx. :)

stevo1663

What about Socket A?

Taeric

@ stevo1663 - It's not listed for Socket A. I believe that socket has a single spring clip that runs through the heatsink similar to Socket 370 (does that sound right?) If so, it would take a fairly extensive mod to make it work.

@ lightsource - Thanks for the comment. Rereading that paragraph I noticed two typos. Whoops!

r3tard

Nice faq taeric, And at stevo, There are some socket A motherboards that have the four mounting holes, The asus a7v880 motherboard is an example of this. Otherwise It will not fit, But if you've got the four mounting holes, with the right bracket it should work :)

noxious89123

Good FAQ... Crikey that HS is BIG!

EDIT: The Si-120 is actually lighter than what 939 and 775 boards are rated to handle. (they are rated to take a 450g HS) and the Si-120 is about 400g. The Zalman 9500 is about 550g and the BT is about 810g. So its not really heavy at all.

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