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CPU Do CPU/MB take damage from magnets?

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by Telefonskaft, 11 Apr 2013.

  1. Telefonskaft

    Telefonskaft What's a Dremel?

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    Hello, I'm currently concept CADing for my new project, and I wonder if magnets could work instead of screws for fitting a CPU cooler to the motherboard. I mean look at the MacBooks which charger is magnetic they don't seem to break because of that?

    So would four magnets screw up my motherboard or CPU?
     
  2. theshadow2001

    theshadow2001 [DELETE] means [DELETE]

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    given the size of the magnets that would be required to hold a cooler with the same force as four screws. I would think they would probably mess something. I doubt its feasible anyway, interference or not.
     
  3. woody_294

    woody_294 Wizard Ninja :P

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    Only way I can think of finding out is to try it! Just stick 4 magnets of the size you'd need around the CPU socket. Given that magnets do what they do though, and electronics is succeptible to EM interference there's a good chance they'd affect something, especially the signalling lanes like the CPU/NB and CPU/RAM connections.
     
  4. Shirty

    Shirty W*nker! Super Moderator

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    This won't work. As shadow says, you would need some serious neodymium magnets within a few centimetres of an expensive chip containing billions of tiny transistors. Things would go badly wrong quickly.
     
  5. Xir

    Xir Modder

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    You'd need pretty strong magnets.
     
  6. alpaca

    alpaca llama eats dremel

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    I wouldn't really recommend it, but if you try, be sure to report back. In the end it still is a static magnetic field, and a signal is a relative thing, so maybe, maybe if you're lucky, it won't do anything big.
    I'd be a bit scared of silent corruption however.

    The mac power thing works because it is quite far away from the electronics (magnetic field strength reduces very fast: 1/r^3) and is not that strong of a magnet.

    I'm a bit curious as to why you would want that? My first guess would be to make the cooler easily removable, but considering how strong the magnets have to put a somewhat effective pressure on the cpu, I think removing it will be anything but easy.
     
  7. Telefonskaft

    Telefonskaft What's a Dremel?

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    Well okay, thank you for all your responses!

    You won't know if stuff works until you either try it or ask a smart person to explain it to you!

    Thanks
     

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