Ive noticed all the new processors have crappy aluminum "heatspreaders" on them now, like high-end ram. I cant help but think that these are reducing cooling performance. On older processors (Athlon, Celly), the heat would transfer from the core, through the thermal paste right into the heatsink. On new processors, (A64, P4) the heat must go from the core, through some sort of thermal paste (these are the same people that claim thermal pads are better than AS5, who knows what it is) through the heatspreader, through some good thermal paste (AS5) then into the heatsink. Granted, you wont get a crushed core with the heat spreader, but Im really tempted just to rip mine off... [/rant]
well you do have a good point but the aluminum heat spreader helps cooling performance more than it hampers it by allowing more surface area for the hsf to make contact with. The thin aluminum only serves to spread the heat out. you might see a degree or so drop in cpu temps, but nothing to warrant taking the heat spreader off. If you think i'm wrong, another way to look at it is if you remove it your hsf will not make proper contact with the cpu core.
the very extreme P4 overclockers who take the heatspreaders off usually only get at most a few degrees drop, which is not much considering there can be more than a few degrees between different heatsinks . Even Ambient temperatures vary more then a few degrees
usually the drop is minimal, like a couple degrees C max if you really want to take it off its quite simple, start at each corner with a rasor blade and work your way in, eventually it should pop right off careful though, some processors have the core expoxied to the heatspreader, while sometimes it is still possible to get the heatspreader off, its just as possible you will rip the core off as well
Pentiums have had heatspreaders for years. Although the prescotts are real heat screamers previous generations were typically cooler then AMD chips. Heatspreader impact is very minimal. Its not speculation on my part because I have removed the heatspreaders on both my pentium cpus and the reduction was 3 degrees average. I also want to add removing heat spreaders have a pretty gay side effect of making your heat sinks not fit correctly. When you remove the heatspreader there is a gap between the heatsink and the core because most heatsinks compensate for that space. You are reduced to heatsinks that bolt to the motherboard if you want correct pressure on the core. FYI dont try and remove newer pentium 4 heatspreaders you will rip off the core. You used to be able to remove pentium heatspreaders in less then 5 minutes. Now they replaced the usual gum on the die and switched it with thermal adhesive on all thier new cpus. To be clear there is actual adhesive on the core now. Not to be confused with the gunk around the outer endge of the heatspreader. It is on all prescott cpus and later versions of c stepping 3.0 ghz and up northwoods. I have 2 pentium 4s and all have the heatspreader removed. Anyone who considers doing it to the newer chips have a deathwish for a dead cpu. So if anyone is thinking hey that sounds like a good idea, dont do it if your is one of the above because it isnt like before.
