Heat sink for M.2 drive for Supermicro M12SWA-TF: how to insert standoffs?

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freemarket

Member
Nov 29, 2015
33
6
8
Florida
Hi,

I currently have a M.2 drive on my mobo which has this heat sink on it: Supermicro SNK-C0121L-1 22W x 129.65L x 4.35H mm and just bought another one for another M.2 stick here:


Here it is on my mobo:
IMG_3791.scale.png
The question is once you unscrew it out, you'll see the two standoffs below it:

IMG_3795.scale.png
but the three visible standoffs appear to be screwed into the board but only the top black one is present and if you look at the picture of the screws that come with this heat sink below:

HeatSinkScrews.png
you see that the external peg of the standoff is not threaded. So how do you secure the standoff in the mobo with the little dark screw to hold it down?
Only the inside of the standoff on top and bottom is threaded.

Fun fact: I spoke with Supermicro support earlier today and got an email back from them where the engineer claims that they do not offer any compatible M.2 heat sinks for this mobo and to get a 3rd party one. I showed them my receipt from the reseller stating that only Supermicro would support this product.

Anyone have a suggestion for how to secure one of the standoffs needed to hold down this heat sink before I attempt to perform another procedure?

Thanks,
Henry
 

jdnz

Member
Apr 29, 2021
80
19
8
that heatsink is on the 'optional' extra list for the x11spa-t - and whilst they show how to install it in the manual it won't help you much ( as they basically just show screwing it into the standoffs, not HOW to install the standoffs )

given the black standoffs they supplied are threaded both ends I'd suspect they intend you to screw thru the captive nut on the board from the UNDER side, then screw the standoff down onto that screw, before installing the m.2 and heatsink and screwing the heatsink down onto the standoff. Which is probably ok if you're building the system, but not much fun if it's already installed.

Presuming you don't intend to use all the m.2 slots right now I'd grab one of the metal 'screw down' standoffs they supply to mount the m.2 itself and use that ( must be the exact same height as if you're using a 22110 m.2 you'd be screwing down thru the heatsink and m.2 into that standoff anyway )
 

freemarket

Member
Nov 29, 2015
33
6
8
Florida
The image showing the black heat sink standoff next to the silver m.2 standoff doesn't clearly show the overall longer length of the heat sink standoff but it is.
IMG_3808.scaled.png
The goody bag that Supermicro offers in the SCA743 kit box comes with a whopping 3 m.2 standoffs, two remain pictured above. I don't think I could use the m.2 standoff to secure the heat sink pictured to the left in the plastic wrapping especially with the think gummy gray heat resistant layer. Very surprising they didn't include the heat sink standoffs in place when building the system.
 

jdnz

Member
Apr 29, 2021
80
19
8
Last edited:

freemarket

Member
Nov 29, 2015
33
6
8
Florida
you noticed in the review of the m12swa-tf on here that there's obviously metal standoffs pre-installed in those end positions?


if you look here in this video review you can clearly see it's a metal version of the plastic ones you've been sen - get back onto supermicro and find out why your board didn't ship with them?

I am going to use this to reply to the previous email from supermicro support. Will also reach out to the poster of this message for some details.
Thanks for finding this!
 

ElCoyote_

Active Member
Jul 22, 2016
193
118
43
That's a bit strange. Your standoffs appear dark.
I have had recently (in the past 8 months) between my hands 4 x M12SWA-TF motherboards and none came with the M.2 standoffs pre-installed. Instead, along with SATA cables and the I/O shield, there was a small bag containing 4 little M.2 standoffs which did fit perfectly onto the mobo for a Samsung 980 Pro.