GA-K8NXP-9 Motherboard - CPU backplate

[Taz]

I was initially looking at a Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-9 motherboard for my new PC but was put off by some statements concerning the CPU socket backplate not conforming to AMD specifications and being made of plastic. This made high-end heatsinks like those from Thermaltake and Zalman incompatible unless you sourced a separate AMD-specification backplate separately (which is dofficult to get in the UK). I posted the following message on Gigabyte's Web site:

Does the GA-K8NXP-9 motherboard come with a metal CPU-socket backing plate that conforms to AMD's specification? I want to attach a Thermaltake XP-90 heatsink and this requires a metal AMD-specification CPU socket back plate (see this link for heatsink http://www.thermalright.com/a_page/m...oduct_xp90.htm). This page, http://www.thermalright.com/a_page/m...board_xp90.htm, says:

"* Unlike other motherboard makers, Gigabyte uses a customized plastic motherboard backplate for its K8 motherboards, which is not compatible with XP-90 K8 retention bracket. Users need to remove it and replace it with a standard metal backplate before installation of Thermalright XP series heatsink. For more information regarding AMD K8 backplate please see Athlon64 processor thermal design guide (Fig. 5 & 6). And the metal backplate is also available from Thermalright here."

I got the following reply from Gigabyte:

Dear Customer

The back plate is metal so there should be no problems.

Kind Regards

Gigabyte

Hope that helps someone!

Taz

[StormPC]

Gigabyte lied unless they are changing over on the production NF4 boards. They have been using the custom plastic backplates.