As you'd expect with such a tall cooler, there's a pretty substantial system for holding it securely in place. Again, though, this requires removal of the motherboard. But, instead of fiddly washers and other such complications, the 3D Rocket II has something rather better.
Gigabyte has devised a cradle-based solution. This attaches to the motherboard using four screws. But there's a feeling of déjà vu when fitting one since it's like the gadget you used to have to take off to fit a third-party P4 cooler!
With the cradle in place, thermal paste was applied to the CPU and the cooler carefully positioned on top. Next up, two small metal latches are slid into slots on the cradle and the bottom of them. When levered over, these hold the cooler in place via its pre-fitted wing plates.
Gigabyte's fixing method is the only one of its kind in this group test. Even though it harks back to the design used on P4 coolers of old, it's extremely effective when in place. It's also equally easy to remove should you need to.
After attaching our sample to the CPU, we did a rotation test, seeing if there was any movement as the cooler isn't directly screwed to the mounts. But there was very little. So, we think that this is one of the best non-push-pin solutions among the coolers we looked at.
Fitment Time
With a fitment time of 246 seconds (4 minutes 6 seconds), the 3D Rocket II was very close to the push-pin mounting systems that a few candidates have implemented. It's a decent, simple alternative to the traditional Intel-designed mounting solutions and managed to pick up 9th place out of 27 configurations.
