And Then I Broke the Heatsink

I headed down to Micro Center today and picked up thermal paste so that I could reinstall the Intel stock cooler. I thought briefly about picking up a new cooler, but decided not to, as that would require removing the entire motherboard (to get any decent cooler), because you need to put a mounting bracket on the back of the motherboard, which simply isn't possible without removing the motherboard.

So I got the paste, came home, managed to wrestle the stock cooler out, cleaned up the old thermal paste, applied the new thermal paste, and went to put the old cooler back in.

I had forgotten exactly how balky these old Intel stock coolers can be. In the process of trying to install it, one of the pins (nine-years-old and apparently now brittle) decided to give up the ghost.

I have reserved a new, better cooler and will be pulling the motherboard tomorrow so that I can install it.

After I get back from Micro Center...