Author Topic: Alert! Check that heat sink! (Read 917 times)

AKDejaVu · « **on:** September 25, 2001, 11:00:00 AM »

A recent article by Tom Pabst highlights the risks associated with PCs overheating. Everyone should read this article, especially if you build your own system.

Anyone ever wonder how long their CPU would last if the heat sink fell off? <especially you guys going to the con>

Check this out (especially the video at the end):

Tom's CPU with no heatsink test

Don't try this at home unless you have a fire extinguisher.

AKDejaVu

Toad · « **Reply #1 on:** September 25, 2001, 11:10:00 AM »

Man, that was eye-opening to say the least. I routinely leave my computer running when I'm out of the house... 700 degrees? <Shudder>

Glad I haven't upgraded to anything past my O/C Celeron yet. I WILL be watching that "thermal protection on the cpu" function now.

bloom25 · « **Reply #2 on:** September 25, 2001, 12:24:00 PM »

This is the ONE area that I have to say Intel is the definate leader in. My only comment on the article would be that if your heatsink fell off an Athlon or P4 there would be more to worry about than just the cpu.

Anything in the top slot (usually agp video card) would be damaged for sure. At least AMD protected the Palomino core against fan failures.

You can also buy 4 1.4 Athlons for the price of 1 P4 2 Gig (which perform similarly to each other overall).

skernsk · « **Reply #3 on:** September 25, 2001, 12:26:00 PM »

Don't believe Deja. It's obviously INTEL propoganda

I want a second opinion.....

skernsk · « **Reply #4 on:** September 25, 2001, 12:27:00 PM »

Oh...umm Bloom might be that second opinion...

AKDejaVu · « **Reply #5 on:** September 25, 2001, 12:41:00 PM »

Quote

You can also buy 4 1.4 Athlons for the price of 1 P4 2 Gig (which perform similarly to each other overall).

It fried the motherboard too

Quote

Don't believe Deja. It's obviously INTEL propoganda

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

AKDejaVu · « **Reply #6 on:** September 25, 2001, 12:50:00 PM »

BTW... I cannot stress enough to download the video at the end of the article. It is amazing on many aspects.

The videos are done with the open motherboard in front of a monitor displaying the quake demo they are running. What is amazing is how quickly things get hot for all of the CPUs... and how each of them respond. The P4 is particularly neet when they put the fan back on if you are paying attention to the demo running in the background. The affect is instant and dramatic.

AKDejaVu

Toad · « **Reply #7 on:** September 25, 2001, 01:05:00 PM »

I know the AMD's are inexpensive.

However, what's the end user cost if the thing burns down your house?

Like I said, a lot of times I leave the computer running while I'm gone. Go out and do yard work, run to the store, etc.

If my house was burning when I got home, I wouldn't care what the AMD chip had cost.

Maverick · « **Reply #8 on:** September 25, 2001, 01:07:00 PM »

Hi there,

ust got a new system up and running. I was concerned about heat and wanted to get a good fan. The best the store had was a dual fan unit with a fan on each end pushing in. The unit is near the power supply and should have had a good flow out of the case. I also installed a front case fan to pull / push air towards the exit fan. It seemed to work but I still cannot close te case on this AMD 1.4 Tbird. I have a small personal fan (6" 110 volt clamp on) about 2 and a half feet from the case blowing into it. This keeps the cpu temp about 105 degrees. Last night in an experiment I put the case on and the CPU finally did overheat after a couple of hours. I hoped it would stay at 115 degrees but it went up to the lock temp of 122 and the system locked hard.

I am going to look at some way to duct air into a specific stream by the CPU. I saw several neat looking "cooling tower" cases at the store but $250 to $350 a pop for a case seems to be way too high to my way of thinking. Most just have extra holes and fans in the case. I can do that here at home MUCh less expensively. I'll also look at closing off some of the open areas that seem to be poorly placed to direct air. I want it to go in a specific direction not just whirl out before it gets to the hot stuff in the unit.

Keep the info going as this situation will only get more critical as CPU's get bigger.

Mav

skernsk · « **Reply #9 on:** September 25, 2001, 01:35:00 PM »

My 1.3 G athlon ran really hot at first..almost 140F

I took the thing back and added a fan got the heatsink reseated in the CPU and now run around 120F according to the ASUS software.

At that temp I don't overheat or lock up, but any hotter and it will.

funkedup · « **Reply #10 on:** September 25, 2001, 01:52:00 PM »

I bought a 1.333 GHz combo from Multiwave with an Enlight 7237 case with 340 W PS. Have no idea what kind of heat sink or fan they used. Never seen temps above 120.

[ 09-25-2001: Message edited by: funkedup ]

Ghosth · « **Reply #11 on:** September 25, 2001, 03:42:00 PM »

Mav,

What I did was add a 2nd fan in the back blowing cold air into the case. Then took a 20oz pop bottle and manufactured an air scoop that takes about half of the fans output, and force feeds it right into the CPU cooler.

The rest of the air does a good job of keeping the Voodoo 5500 cool.

skernsk · « **Reply #12 on:** September 25, 2001, 03:45:00 PM »

That I think is another reason for the amount of heat generated in my case..VooDoo 5.

The last thing i want to do is put flammable materials inside my case

Fishu · « **Reply #13 on:** September 25, 2001, 04:20:00 PM »

I got celeron 566 which is overclocked to 850mhz, been so for almost a year now.

With overclocking it ranges 43-47C and with normal clocks it is about 4-5 C lower.

Staga · « **Reply #14 on:** September 25, 2001, 04:51:00 PM »

I wanted to check how high could my CPU temp rise under serious load:
1,4Ghz Athlon running 1,51Ghz with Thermaltake's Volcano 6Cu, shim and silverpaste.
Screenshot from desktop with AsusProbe showing temperatures

Oh, I did run 10 PiFasts to get a good load, One takes less than 53sec to run so 10 of those took less than 10mins but long enough to see results.