Quote Originally Posted by thefunk View Post
Funnily enough, I'm less worried about the aftermarket cooler - that wasn't so difficult to install once I knew how (and with thermal paste the second time!), but the pins for the CPU? That scares me ...

The pins aren't on the CPU anymore for intel and most amd, the pins are actually on the motherboard, as long as you dont cram your finger in the socket or something dumb like that, you won't have any issues. you just align the orientation pins, or knockouts whatever you want to call them, and the retention mechanism does the rest for you, on most newer boards, the clip is super tight, it might even feel like it's gonna break, it won't, unless you have the chip turned wrong, but you'll know pretty quick if the chip isn't seated properly.