Alert! Check that heat sink!

[bloom25]

Don't get too worried guys.  The chances of your heatsink falling off (if you've mounted it correctly) are very small.  I would highly recommend checking it before and after a trip though.  (This goes for ALL cpus, regardless of manufacturer.)  If you've ever had the pleasure of mounting a heatsink on an Athlon then you know what it would take to get the thing off.  

I've never heard of a fire caused by a cpu burning up, though I wonder if homeowner's insurance covers that?      

(DejaVu, I'll bet that article almost made you fall out of your chair coming from Tom Pabst.   )

[bloom25]

Wow Staga, 50 C is excellent at that load level.  My 1.3 Tbird runs at about 47C (116 F) full load after about an hour of spice work or maybe up to 45C after a long time in AH.

140 F (60 C ) is the hottest temperature that I would consider OK for a Tbird.  I've seen as high at 70C on a friends system and it is still stable.  It's important to remember that the CPU will draw more power as the temperature goes up. (As all semiconductors do.) This puts a heavier load on the Powersupply and thus things get even hotter.

I see one person says his system locks up at around 120C.  My guess is that he is using a 200 or 250W powersupply.  A 300W powersupply is nearly a requirement for P4s and fast Athlons.  Look at it this way:  A 1.4 Tbird can use up to 84W of power.  Now add the 40 - 50W for the video card and 10 W for the soundcard.  All that power comes off the Motherboard, which only typically has 130 - 160W available to it from the 3.3 and 5 Volt supplies and you can see the problem.  (Most powersupplies list how much power can be provided on the 3.3 and 5V combined to the MB itself.)  Intel has taken an interesting route to combat this problem in requiring P4 systems to use special powersupplies with an addtional power connector.

[Serapis]

Hehehehe.... Tom's Hardware is a notorious Intel supporter. He's had it in for AMD from day one. I bet those smoking AMD CPUs were doctored by Dr. Tom to do that.

AKDejaVu

Woah! Tom is hardly an Intel cheerleader (any more than he has been a 3dfx, Nvidia or AMD cheerleader etc.   Tom seems to support companies that offer effective performance/cost products and is very critical of "marketing" over function. I have seen him slam both Intel and AMD over the years. I believe that a company is only as good as its current offering where Tom is concerned (3dfx for example).

Recently, he has been giving Intel a very hard time -- as he should. The Duron is universally recommended over the Celeron, and the Athlon over the P3/P4. He helped make sure Intel didn't get away with its Rambus support, slammed the first 1 Ghz effort by Intel and is a critic of Intel's strong-arm tactics with the Asian MB mfgs. He is about the most accurate and non-biased (or at least cantankerous) reviewer I have come across.

Charon

[AKDejaVu]

Charon, I am well aware of Tom's exploits.  That statement was totally tongue in cheek.  His desire to see Intel fall from the top is only surpassed by his desire to see AMD knock them off.

I still recall him recomending the AMD K6-2 as a processor of choice for small companies that didn't need to worry about things like graphics intensive programs or <later to learn> stability.  Tom has always looked for reasons to promote AMD.

 

DejaVu, I'll bet that article almost made you fall out of your chair coming from Tom Pabst.

You got that right Bloom.  I heard about the article and said "are you sure that's on Tom's Hardware?"  I'm not accustomed to him actually admitting things like Intel had a good idea with their over-temp protection in the P4.

As a rule, I find AnandTech to be much more objective.  Tom has a bad habbit of focussing on one issue and ignoring others... as fits his mood of the day.

AKDejaVu

[Toad]

Fan falling off is rare.

Fan quitting? Not so rare.

Same result, n'est pas?

I think homeowners would cover it though. If your toaster torches, they cover it.

[-lynx-]

Fan falling off is rare.
Fan quitting? Not so rare.

Same result, n'est pas?

 

Hmmm... Whatever happened to themperature monitoring by the mobo itself or programms like MBM? Mine's set to cut the main power if the CPU goes over 70C. Simple and it works - I tested it with lower temps... My 1GHz Athlon goes up to 50-52C after AH and other graphics intensive things.


 

It is no rare occasion that the processor heat sink fell off while the system was in transport.

Tom's scaremongering here unless he's talking about some Intel derived crap - no amount of shaking or bumping will take an AMD-approved heatsink off the motherboard unless the motherboard's desintegrated itself...  

[ 09-26-2001: Message edited by: -lynx- ]

[Rude]

My house is on fire as I type this...very hot in here...Intel PIII 800 running at 104 F...what a company!


 

[1776]

hmmmmmmmm, AMD laying off people, closing plants, stock under $10, and Gateway dumps AMD for Intel. You could say AMD is melting in more then one way    

I wonder if you can toast marshmellows over that motherboard the AMD's are on and how many could you toast before the heat declines or you are driven out of the house by toxic fumes, smoke and fire    ?

Proud owner of an Intel P4 1.7Ghz      Leaves puter on all the time, no problem    

<posts sticky note on puter:sell AMD in the morning, short!!>

[ 09-27-2001: Message edited by: 1776 ]

[ 09-27-2001: Message edited by: 1776 ]

[bloom25]

Obvously plant closings are not a good thing, but let me say the FABs 14 and 15 used an old aluminum interconnect process that could not be used for > 1gig processors with acceptable yields.  (Fab25 in Dresden uses a more modern copper interconnect process.)  They would have been temporarily closed or remodelled (which may be happening) regardless of AMDs current stock price.

No computer company stock (that I know of) has been totally spared.  Let me say that both AMD and Intel have new "stuff" coming out that will likely cause both their stocks to rebound pretty soon.  

As for leaving your computer running all the time, mine's been up over a week now without a reboot.  I run my system VERY hard with engineering software and games (if I have time   ).  Before that it was on for 2 months straight over the summer.  The only reason it was turned off was because I had to move it 50 miles away.   Don't be a moron and think that just because you have an AMD system you can't leave your system on all the time.  My motherboard would shut my system down (as will most modern Intel or AMD boards) if my CPU (or case fan) failed and the temperature went up.  If you have win2k or Linux there are no problems associated (usually) with running your system continuously without it locking up for extended periods of time.

[AKDejaVu]

It is somewhat narrowminded to assume that the AMD plants that were closed were processor manufacturing plants.

Much of both AMD and Intels revenue over the last two years has come from flash memory.  It wasn't successful processor sales that bumped AMD into the black.. it was flash sales.  It allowed AMD to greatly reduce the price of their processors.  It also made it easier for Intel to follow suit.

Unfortunately, the flash market has slowed drastically.  As a result, both companies are having to make manufacturing adjustments in that area.

What remains to be seen is how much of an impact the price war between the two companies will affect things now.  Whereas before it wasn't as much of a factor since there was another source of revenue... now both are going to have to pay much more attention to processor revenue.

AKDejaVu

[AKDejaVu]

By the way... Gateway and IBM's decision to drop AMD was not particularly based on some "we've finally decided this one is better" conclusion.  They were based on the fact that it is more expensive to run completely different platforms in both a tech support and manufacturing environment.

The industry as a whole is looking to reduce costs wherever they can.  That was an obvious choice.  The reasone for Intel being the "winner"... certification and volume.  AMD can't catch Intel in either category.

AKDejaVu