As standard, the Eclipse has with no mountings attached. The plain base of the cooler has two pairs of small screw holes. For the LGA 775 socket, we need to attach two 'wing-plates' to either side, each of which has two long screws attached through the top.
With these in place the motherboard has to be protected using thick rubber grommets, one side of which is coated in adhesive to stop it falling off when you pull all the pieces together.
Since the Eclipse uses no motherboard back-plate, we'd hoped to be able to install it with the motherboard still in the case. Alas, not so. That's because the four supplied fixing bolts have to be inserted from the underside of the motherboard. Not ideal. On the up side, Cooler Master is thoughtful enough to include a small bolt adapter for your screwdriver.
Thermal paste is supplied in a small syringe that is enough for a few applications. We slid the cooler's mounting plate through the four holes on the motherboard but the considerable bulk of the cooler meant that the easiest way to install it was to place the motherboard on the edge of a table. Having done that, you hand-tighten nuts onto the four bolts, then tighten them in opposite corners, a little at a time.
Fitment Time
With a fitment time of 495 seconds (8 minute 15 seconds), the Cooler Master Eclipse came 16th out of the 27 configurations. The main reason why it took so long to fit was the need to make sure that everything was aligned correctly while having to tighten bolts from the underside of the motherboard. That said, the mounting system is not the worst we saw – not by a long way.
