I just saw the toms hardware guide video, about what happens when the heatsinks are removed and I cringed... Surely AMD has done something about this?. I won't buy Intel Pentiums tho: Stak Trading - Pentium 3, 1GHz - £129.00 (exc VAT!) AMD Athlon, 1GHz - £76.38 (including VAT) Now you can see why. But, the video worried me... I know this is unlikely, but what if the heatsink DID fall-off by some weird power?!. Will I have wasted all that money?. I'm a paranoid person, but look at the damage caused. BUT, I can see some flaws in that test... 1. First AMD test - was the heatsink even attached? I've never seen one come off so easily. 2. P4 Test - The thermometer was held further away than on the AMD ones. 3. Both AMD Tests - The thermometers were held VERY close... whereas in the Pentium 4 test it was about 7CM away from the CPU. Also, T.H. Commented on how loosely the Heatsinks were held onto the chip. If you look on AMD Test 2, there was a small struggle to get the heatsink off. Oh well. Maybe it's just me, but I don't find that fair testing, and the comments they made contradicted the video slightly. Anyone agree with me?.
i saw it too. it was just to demonstrate what happens when your hs comes off. they didnt use and thermal interface material, and for each one they just took the hs off of the processor. it doesnt matter if the clip is holding the thing on, it was to demonstrate what happens when you run an athlon w/o a hs. i dont see how having a clip would have made the athlon not melt down. the thermometer they used was an infared one, im pretty sure it doesnt matter how far away you hold it from the thing. also, specific tems arent that important, seeing smoke says hot enough. no smoke, and it still works, must be cooler. and your #2 and #3 are the same thing. so acually you only have 2 invalid points. you can pick at it till it bleeds, but it doenst change the overall effect. the athlons melted down and the pentiums didnt, thats what it demonstrated, and it did a very nice job of it.
buy AMD at the end of the day AMD athlons are about 25% faster that the same rated Pentium 4 and a lot cheaper. personaly i think people buy intel because of the brand name, however AMD are better value and faster. and its very. very unlikely the heatsink will fall off if you put it on properly. and if you're paranoid get a temp monitoring programe that will alert you if the cpu temp get higher than you want it and you can safely turn off your pc and get the fire blanket out. or just put a household smoke detctor in your case.
Don't worry about it... on forums like OcUK there must be 1000#s of people with Athlon and Duron's and the number of 'crap my heatsink just fell off' posts I've seen still totals zero. Cheers, r. p.s. sometimes fans do fail and sometime it is fatal for athlons but even this is pretty rare if you have a good heatsink.
With the amount of money you save on buying the AMD you can afford to replace it if something goes wrong. Which is unlikely anyway.
i was a bit pissed off when the fan + chipset fan stopped on a mobo i'd bought from OCUK, and unfortunatly it did kill the processor, mainly cause it was my sisters pc and her not realising that the burning smell was not a good sign! The processor didn't look damaged but didn't work...
That's not good... blueice's fan on his orb died and that killed his cpu too, but in general if you've got a good exhaust fan and a good heatsink even if your cpu fan dies you should be ok. Mine died a few months back, I didn't noticed until I'd been playing a game for quarter of an hour and I happened to look at MBM's OSD, and all well in the end Cheers, r.
You don't have MBM set to scream/send an email/call the fire brigade/shutdown the computer on a high reading? It'll do at least 3 of the above
I've got acpi off so it can;t turn my pooter off... as for screaming at me not sure it would work in a game. Anyway I've proved my pooter doesn't need my cpu fan to be able to run so it's ok r.
oh it does work in the middle of a game... I got annoyed with RTCW crashing after a while of playing....while i had my fans set to low speed (i'd forgotten to switch them on) - set mbm alarm temp down from 54 to 52 (it was crashing before it got to 54 evidently) and the next time I played and forgot to turn the fans on, after a while rtcw temporarily dumped me back into windows, with alarms wailing - and i turn the fans on and all is ok i think I've done this with CS also
AMDs arent bad - its just the f00ls who cant fit HSFs that get them their bad name. yes, amds do run hotter and are at risk from the core being crushed. but ive fitted LOADS of AMDs and i cant see how its possible to crush the core! you must have to fit the hsf on at an angle and push the clip with a damn sledgehammer to crush the core!! as for the heat side of things, as long as you have a good heatsink and use some sort of TIM, then you'll be fine. my tbird 1333 (OCed to 1533) is cooled by a taisol 760 with a ystech 60mm on it, and it hits about 48*C on 100% load now that its overclocked as high as it is. i'd be worried if it was hitting 60*C but 48 load is fine really. intels are just too expensive. 1g p3 is like 140 notes!! and for the same money you can get an xp1700 or something! what kind of person buys intels at the moment, when you can save money with AMD, and as long as you have a good heatsink and know how to fit one you just cant go wrong!!
my fop had a duff clip and it dropped off onto my gfx card one nite. In the morning i switched on my puter and it started to boot windows... crash. HUH? i reset, it starts to boot win and.. crash! So i open it up and to my horror see the heatsink lying ontop of my gfx card with my tbird (then 850) left exposed. I try to take it out but its far far too hot, so i leave it a min, take it out, wash it off (not with water) and reapply the AS and heatsink. Viola! it worked after 2 mins of no heatsink running!! Like Rich says if you're too silly to fit a heatsink properly then your probably gonna bugger something else up in your puter anyway, so i really wouldnt worry about it. Its only a problem when companies ship computers to people and if the base unit is slightly mishandled in transit then your heatsink *might* if not fitted tightly, fall off. But if its handled *that* badly - the likely hood of your harddisk remaining intack and other fragle bit suriving is negliable either!
Would be very easy to put a push to make on your mobo's 5v line and stuff in under a corner of the heatsink - I don't think a comedy siren is really neccesary r.
You could have some of those spinning lights from the top of ambulances for your 'HS FEXORED!' Siren...
I might be missing something here, but isn't the answer simply to make sure the heatsink is on properly, or get one with a proper mounting system
I have taken the fan on my cpu to change it ... as long as your not on full load you can last quite a long time. Also the heatsink on my voodoo 4 fell off while I was playing CS, I shat myself then! No damage tho
after testing a mates CPU in my rig, i re-installed my tbird and re fitted my taisol and all that, plugged everything in and booted it. i turned around and went to go and make a cup of tea while it booted, and just as i got outta the bedroom door, i thought, "strange, my PC seems quiet" i legged it to the PC to find the YStech fan unplugged it had got half way through loading winXP and the heatsink wasnt really even remotely warm to the touch... lucky
i believe that alot of guys who buy computers retail or get them shipped to them all put together may have a problem with the HSF comming off in shipping. although, i suppose that if your PC is getting jarred there is a good chance of more things breaking in it, but what can you do. maybe some of the boys who have their fans falling off are using a huge 5 pound block of copper as a HS in their lan rig, and in transit it may get jarred off. ive even seen the plastic on the socket broken right off. not fun stuff.
