| Cooler Master Z600 and Sphere CPU Coolers
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Z600 Installation and Operation:
The Cooler Master Z600 requires a bit of assembly prior to installation, as the appropriate mounting brackets have to be attached to the cooler base first. The whole process isn't particularly difficult, but two things may slow you down. The first is that the text portion of the manual is rather brief. Pictures are provided for each step, but more detailed instructions might come in handy. The second is that you might need more than two hands to get the job done easily.
There are a bunch of small screws and washers required, and you not only need to be able to attach them, but you also need to keep a hold of the cooler and your motherboard. In about the last step of the installation I found myself holding the motherboard upside down with the cooler below it, while I tried to slip some washers onto bolts poking through four holes. Then some nuts had to be tightened using an included nut driver that had to be used with a Phillips head screwdriver. Somewhat of a juggling act that I think could be made a bit easier!
After assembling things as described above I took another look at the manual. I couldn't believe the backplate wasn't going to be used, as a good deal of weight would be left for the board to handle all by itself with just some plastic washers on the backside. It turns out I did follow one picture's description of the installation properly, and that an optional method was to leave out the four washers and to use the solid backplate instead. While it did provide more confidence that the assembly wouldn't snap my board, it was a bit difficult because the nut driver didn't fit well into the contours of the backplate.
The images below show the Z600 installed on an ASUS P5KC LGA 775 motherboard. The cooler is massive and towers above the board. It also hangs off the top edge by a good amount, meaning it might interfere with some cases and power supplies. Even if the width wasn't a problem, the 160mm height surely could be!
 
The images below show the cooler from another angle, and the below right image shows it with one 120mm cooling fan installed. While there were no interference issues with the memory installed, anyone with taller modules may find themselves having problems installing a fan in that position. If this cooler actually fit inside your case, I don't think you could put a fan on the opposite side, either. This would most likely interfere with the exhaust fan, but perhaps a second fan wouldn't be needed as the exhaust fan could aid with the CPU cooling directly.
 
The final image shows a view from above, and an approximation of what you might see through a case side window. You wouldn't see much, as it is all cooler on the top half of the board.
I never did install the Z600 in a case. I did some rough fits and could see it wasn't going to work. You would need a very large tower case in order to have room for this thing in a variety of directions. The width, depth, and height could all present problems.
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