hope you didnt bend any pins....

@ John: No pins look bent - thats the good news.

@Halo: It's not a pressure issue(though i was using a fair amount of pressure), it is that the clamp slipped, and the bracket popped up.

@Nate: Ok, so it is meant to be loose. But then why did the clamp down slip?

Ok, nvm. The clamp went down this time. I held the bracket that goes over the cpu in place, and clamped it down while doing that. Maybe that helped or the first time when it slipped was a fluke. idk, lets just hope it boots. *crossing fingers*

that's a good thing!!

All the classy's brackets are super loose...not to worry. 

Woopty frickin doo, problem number 2. I am trying to mount my Megahalems, and the bracket seems to be messed up. Probably a manufacturing defect. The spring screws are too big for the cross mount plate holes...

what do you mean too big?

Well the cross mount has holes in it, unthreaded (like it should be, just fyi). The two beams mounted to the board have the threads. The screws are supposed to go through the holes in the cross mount, and then threaded into to beams on the mobo.


Here is a crappy diagram of what the spring screws look like:

[===] -> screw head
  > <
  > <   -> spring (it is around the screw)
  > <
   | |
   | |   -> part of screw unthreaded
    \
    /    -> part of screw threaded
    \

The unthreaded part of the screw is too fat to fit through the holes in the cross mount. It should fit though. If it fits, the threaded part  protrudes out the bottom, and is able to screw into the 2 board mounted beams. In my case, the unthreaded part is too fat, so the screw is not even protruding out the bottom of the cross mount holes.

I hope this helps describe a bit better.

Maybe time to break out the dremel...

Yea, I'd drill it out a bit.  If you mess it up, it just puts you behind a couple days until they ship you a replacement mounting kit.

Yay! The dremeling worked really well. I probably took about 1/4 of a Milimeter off the inside, and now they fit perfectly. That was pretty dumb (as in how little i had to shave off), but now i can move foward with my build again.